Clinicians' perception of issues in patient safety: A case study of public hospitals in Riyadh region, in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Although delivery of healthcare services has improved significantly, the number of serious medical errors continues to rise. For instance, 30,000 patients in the UK die every year because of medical errors. In Saudi Arabia, with a much smaller population base, the number of medical errors reported every year is around 8,000 (20% of complaints received by the Ministry of Health). This research aimed to determine the perceptions of clinicians regarding risk factors that undermine patient safety in the hospitals run by Ministry of Health, in Riyadh region. A cross-sectional survey using self-administered questionnaires. Cluster sampling was used to select ten hospitals in Riyadh region. The questionnaires were distributed to 774 physicians working in ten randomly selected hospitals. The overall response rate was 61% (N=470), of which 449 questionnaires (58%) contained complete information variables and were valid for analysis (58% response rate).