Safety culture in the surgical services: Case study

Adverse events are a reality in health care, with particular interest in the surgical patient, so it is crucial that one knows its dimension, in order to avoid them whenever possible. The internalization of a culture of safety as a priority, by professionals, can contribute to the development of systems that lead to safer care. It can be reduced the occurrence of events and their negative impacts, especially during the hospitalization days and on the additional costs associated. Thus, we developed an exploratory study in a Local Health Unit, with the aim of understanding the culture of safety in surgical services for the year 2008, and if it was influenced by three dimensions: leadership, teamwork and communication. The obtained results show that the security culture is influenced by all of these three dimensions, observing that the existing culture on such services is at an intermediate level classified as acceptable.