Associations between perceived crisis mode work climate and poor information exchange within hospitals.

Background: Because hospital units operating in crisis mode could create unsafe transitions of care due to miscommunication, our objective was to estimate associations between perceived crisis mode work climate and patient information exchange problems within hospitals.

Methods: Self-reported data from 247,140 hospital staff members across 884 hospitals were obtained from the 2010 Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Presence of a crisis mode work climate was defined as respondents agreeing that the hospital unit in which they work tries to do too much too quickly.