Improving safety in hospitals is a major challenge. Numerous adverse events happen every day due to avoidable events relating to failures in care.

This paper investigates a clinical setting in southeast Queensland, gauging some of the determinants of a patient-safety focused organisation. We find that the combination of highly engaged employees, a collaborative work environment (especially between work units like wards and/or professional groupings like physiotherapists and nurses) and strong supervisory support strongly drives the creation of an improved patient safety climate.

While not dismissing the importance of individual accountability, our findings support the theories that efforts to improve employee engagement, inter group collaboration and supervisory skills will yield positive improvements in patient safety climate, and ultimately patient outcomes. These constructs are components of a “just culture”, where an incident is viewed not as a failure but as an opportunity to learn.

Research designs that test the effectiveness of interventions on improving specific aspects such as supervisory support, inter-professional collaboration and employee engagement warrant further exploration. The hierarchical nature of traditional health organisations places special importance on the role of the supervisor and the concept of clinical leadership. Given the important role these constructs have in inter-professional practice, this aspect requires further investigation. Our findings affirm the importance of IPC as being positively related to higher levels of patient safety.

Research designs that test the effectiveness of interventions on improving specific aspects such as supervisory support, inter-professional collaboration and employee engagement warrant further exploration. The hierarchical nature of traditional health organisations places special importance on the role of the supervisor and the concept of clinical leadership. Given the important role these constructs have in inter-professional practice, this aspect requires further investigation. Our findings affirm the importance of IPC as being positively related to higher levels of patient safety.

Brandis, S., Rice, J. & Schleimer, S., (2017). Dynamic Workplace Interactions for Improving Patient Safety Climate, Journal of Health Organization and Management, 31(1), http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-09-2016-0185.