Exploring the Association Between Organizational Safety Climate, Failure to Rescue, and Mortality in Inpatient Surgical Units.

Objective: To examine the association between organizational safety climate (OSC), in-hospital mortality (IM), and failure to rescue (FTR) in 2 hospitals, 1 with and 1 without crew-resource-management training.

Background: OSC is 1 of the most important organizational factors that promotes safety at work; however, there is a lack of research examining the relationship between OSC and patient deaths in hospitals.

Methods: We utilized a matched 2-group comparison of surgical patients and surveyed surgical staff to assess the relationship between OSC, FTR, and IM.

Results: The OSC assessment was completed by 261 surgical team members. A total of 1764 patients had at least 1 FTR complication; however, there was no association between OSC with FTR or IM for either hospital.

Conclusions: Nurse leaders should remain vigilant in building work teams with strong hospital safety climates. More research is needed to explore the relationship between OSC and patient outcomes.