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Methods Inf Med 2017; 56(S 01): e30-e38
DOI: 10.3414/ME16-01-0075
Original Articles
Schattauer GmbH

The Impact of Information Culture on Patient Safety Outcomes

Development of a Structural Equation Model
Virpi Jylhä
1   Department of Health and Social Management, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
,
Santtu Mikkonen
2   Department of Applied Physics, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
,
Kaija Saranto
1   Department of Health and Social Management, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
,
David W. Bates
3   Division of General Medicine and Primary Care and Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
4   Partners HealthCare Information Systems, Division of Clinical and Quality Analysis, Wellesley, MA, USA
› Author Affiliations Funding Part of this research received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 223468.
Further Information

Publication History

received: 17 June 2016

accepted: 25 January 2017

Publication Date:
31 January 2018 (online)

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Summary

Background: An organization’s information culture and information management practices create conditions for processing patient information in hospitals. Information management incidents are failures that could lead to adverse events for the patient if they are not detected.

Objectives: To test a theoretical model that links information culture in acute care hospitals to information management incidents and patient safety outcomes.

Methods: Reason’s model for the stages of development of organizational accidents was applied. Study data were collected from a cross-sectional survey of 909 RNs who work in medical or surgical units at 32 acute care hospitals in Finland. Structural equation modeling was used to assess how well the hypothesized model fit the study data.

Results: Fit indices indicated a good fit for the model. In total, 18 of the 32 paths tested were statistically significant. Documentation errors had the strongest total effect on patient safety outcomes. Organizational guidance positively affected information availability and utilization of electronic patient records, whereas the latter had the strongest total effect on the reduction of information delays.

Conclusions: Patient safety outcomes are associated with information management incidents and information culture. Further, the dimensions of the information culture create work conditions that generate errors in hospitals.

Keywords

Information management - patient safety - adverse events - medication administration error - patient complaint - survey - health information technology
 

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