What is Safety Culture?

Safety culture encompasses the attitudes held within a workplace, from the leadership to the front lines. This includes how open health care workers are to discussing patient safety issues and concerns with their colleagues and their leaders; how safe they feel about speaking out if they think that a patient is in danger; how serious they think the organizational leadership is about patient safety; and how well they think they work as a team.

Safety culture varies not just between different health care organizations, but also between clinical units and roles. In fact, the most meaningful measurements of culture are at the local level, since frontline staff know the hazards facing their patients and are capable of identifying solutions and plans to address specific problems. 

The Center for Innovation offers a variety of programs and workshops that address measuring and improving culture of safety in any health care organization.