Background Patient safety is an important component of healthcare quality. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) designed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is a validated tool used to assess the patient safety culture in hospitals. However, few studies have been performed exclusively in Pharmacy Departments.

Purpose The aims of the study were to evaluate the patient safety culture of healthcare professionals in a Pharmacy Department, to analyse the strengths and opportunities for improvement and to compare with a multicentre study (n = 2,503) carried out in national hospitals by the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality in 2008.

Material and methods Descriptive and cross-sectional study. The national adaptation HSOPSC was delivered to all staff of the Pharmacy Department. It included 12 dimensions related to patient safety culture, the number of events reported during last year and professional profile of the responders.

Results The response rate was 70.7% (n = 28), half of whom were pharmacists (14/15) and the other 50’0% included technicians, pharmacy assistants, nurses and administrative staff members (14/26). The global score of patient safety culture in our service was 7.5 (on a 10-point scale) and there were no significant differences among professional profiles. 47.8% of responders reported >2 events last year and there were significant differences between pharmacists (57.1%) and non-pharmacists (33.3%). The most highly-scoring dimension was ‘Organisational learning and continuous improvement’ (84.2%). The worst qualified was ‘Staffing’ (38.7%). In the comparative study, the global score of patient safety culture was 7 and the highest and the worst dimensions were the same (82% and 27.6%, respectively).

Conclusion Patient safety culture in our department is notable and slightly higher than comparison national hospitals. The HSOPSC allowed us to detect the main strengths and opportunities for improvement in order to design patient safety strategies.

References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.