The Healthcare Safety Environment: Egyptian Health Practitioners’ Attitude to Medical Errors

Medical errors overwhelm the healthcare environment worldwide.

Aim: Identify correlates of the healthcare workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention within the health facility environment.

Methods: Healthcare providers from selected private health organizations in greater Cairo, Egypt were surveyed; their work load, burnout, leader-member exchange quality; their influences upon health workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention were analyzed.

Results: Among 5,725 health professionals surveyed, 2,260 (39.5%) returned valid responses. Participants’ mean age was 33.4 years (±7.76SD); male-female ratio was 1.26:1. Nursing predominate other occupations, e.g., 35.4% vs. 21.6% physicians. Both leadership member exchange quality and health workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention scores were significantly higher in male workers [t(df=2258)=0.106, p<0.05; t(df=2258)=1.22, p<0.05, respectively]. Leader-member exchange and attitude toward medical errors prevention scores varied by occupation [F(df=4, 2,255)=2.48, p=0.045]; physicians score higher than technicians, nurse, and pharmacists, [F(df=4, 2,255)=6.65, p=0.02]. Participants’ leader-member exchange score increased by age [F(df=3, 2,237)=3.52, p=0.016]. Burnout score decreased by decreasing age [F(df=3, 2,237)=3.37, p=0.042]. Leader-member exchange and health workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention are correlated (r= 0.16, p=0.015). Workload positively correlated with burnout (r= 0.351, p<0.001), and inversely correlated with attitude toward medical errors prevention (r= ‒0.161, p<0.016). Otherwise, health workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention and burnout inversely correlated (r=-0.473, p<0.001). Burnout could predict changes in the health workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention (β= ‒0.032, p<0.001); work experience was a predictor for burnout (β = ‒0.122, p=0.008).

Conclusions: Work stressors impact health workers’ health workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention, including private health workers, who are often under a financial target pressure. Given their favorable health workers’ attitude toward medical errors prevention and leader-member exchange profile, older health workers can play a role in combating medical errors risk in the healthcare institutions arena.