Ensuring a sufficient number of personnel as part of the safety culture in medical facilities

The goal of the research was to find the way medical employees in acute and later care services perceive the safety of patients at their workplace. The article is focused on partial results associated with personnel issues. The opinions were obtained with the quantitative research method using a standardized questionnaire: the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The research group consisted of 331 medical employees and did not include doctors. The composite score, which expresses the aspects of a certain phenomenon with a single number, was calculated by averaging all of the positive answers using the methods of the ARHQ. Low values show the possibilities for improvement. The learned values of the composite score in the researched domain of Personnel ensurance were 47.82%, and the anticipations and acts of a superior supporting patient safety was 72.78%. Compared to other studies, these values are equal or slightly higher. However, they do not reach the level presented in referential values of the AHRQ, i.e. 63% and 75%. The assessment of safety enables the managing staff to find out the outline of individual aspects and help to improve safety and the quality of care based on the identification of the problem.