Many Factors Shape Exposure to Injury
Exposure to injury—whether employee or patient injury—is influenced by many elements. Communication and compliance with healthcare best practices and procedures have been identified as central to safety. However, comprehensive analysis reveals that exposure is determined not only by such immediate factors, but also by far-reaching, previously hard to identify influences. Most specifically, organizational culture has emerged as a leading, predictive indicator of safety performance, and data shows that culture is directly influenced by both organizational leadership and employee behavioral engagement. As a result, patient and employee safety initiatives that align organizational levels, professional constituencies and systems have consistently stronger results and sustainability.

The Emerging Role of Safety
In leading healthcare organizations, safety is not seen as an activity apart from other performance areas — it is regarded as a sign of overall organizational health. As regulatory emphasis and public concern come increasingly to regard patient safety as a critical performance metric, safety improvement becomes strategically important.

Safety is a unique performance outcome in that all employees as well as non-employed staff strongly benefit from a safe working environment that actively eliminates hazards and minimizes medical errors. Because of this, strong safety performance can generate employee and professional engagement in ways no other performance outcome can. And such a successful cultural focus yields additional benefits including improved employee morale and retention, improved leader-member relationships, consistent behavioral reliability, and widespread organizational citizenship.