he HA has always placed great emphasis on the patient safety culture. In June 2008, it formed the Work Group on the Patient Safety Culture Survey, which consists of colleagues from the HAHO Quality & Safety Division and doctors and nurses from various Clusters. One of the Work Group's major tasks is to conduct a systematic survey to collect data that can be used to enhance the safety culture. It is chaired by Dr Anne Kwan, the Cluster Service Director (Quality & Safety) at Kowloon East Cluster and the Chief of Service of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine at United Christian Hospital, who told HASLink more about the survey in a recent interview.

Dr Kwan candidly admits that conducting a survey that covers all 56,000 of our HA colleagues poses enormous challenges. Besides the huge number of people involved, the data to be collected are complicated. So why is it being done? "We aim to collect as much information as possible about the perceptions of our colleagues concerning patient safety in the workplace. This will help us to identify and take advantage of opportunities to enhance our safety culture. Also, the survey findings will form a benchmark that will allow us to evaluate the outcomes of our improvement strategies."

Dr Kwan's team is adopting the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) questionnaire, which has already been used in many other countries and which has a very mature mode of data analysis. "However, since no Chinese version existed, we had to spend considerable time translating its contents." To do this, Dr Kwan enlisted the help of three colleagues who had knowledge and experience of translation work. Furthermore, over a hundred colleagues were asked to complete three different versions of the translation on a trial basis so as to confirm that the Chinese version corresponded with the original English one and that it was not too academic.

The survey covers more than 50 questions. It should only take about 10 or 15 minutes to complete. The Work Group has already explained its purpose to various Staff Group Consultative Committees, and most of their members have given it their support. "The survey will begin very soon. We very much want to know our colleagues' opinions about patient safety issues, medical errors and even reporting systems in their hospitals," explains Dr Kwan. "So we hope all of you will spare just a little time to complete the questionnaire. Your opinions can help the HA strengthen its patient safety culture, so that we can advance along the road to success in this area, with you as our partners!"