Do quality management systems influence clinical safety culture and leadership? A study in 32 Australian hospitals (February 2020)

Summary

This study from Clay-Williams et al., published in the International Journal for Quality in Healthcare, aimed to explore the associations between the organisation-level quality arrangements, improvement and implementation and department-level safety culture and leadership measures across 32 large Australian hospitals.

The authors found that the influence of organisation-level quality management systems on clinician safety culture and leadership varied depending on the hospital department, suggesting that whilst there was some consistency on patient safety attitudes and behaviours throughout the organizations, there were also other factors at play.