Making Health Care Safer: A Critical Assessment of Safety Culture, Efficiency of Safety Practices and Improvement Factors in A Corporate Hospital

‘To Err is Human, To Forgive is Divine' is a popular saying by an English poet Alexander Pope. Like in other work areas, accidents and mistakes tend to happen in health care profession too which can prove deadly, drawing massive public attention thus harming the repute of institution. These errors can be human, technical or system related. Unlike the quote, such errors can't be forgiven as they are associated with lives and sentiments of patients and their relatives. The main reasons deduced include shortage of staff, unskilled staff, overcrowding of patients and improper management policies and system. Patient safety, a new discipline, emphasizes on analyzing and eradicating medical errors ensuring a positive repute of organization. This study is based on data collected from 212 healthcare workers of corporate hospital, posted in various clinical and non-clinical areas, thereby assessing patient safety culture, perceptions and efficiency of healthcare workers and suggestions for improvement from healthcare workers perspectives. The study highlights paucity of trained efficient staff and infrastructure, overlooking of errors due to overcrowding compromising patient safety. Hence, suggestions to improve patient safety through improved policy, procedures and work culture are discussed.