Exploring patient safety culture in preventive medicine settings: an experience from Northern Italy.

INTRODUCTION: Patient safety and quality in healthcare are inseparable. Examining patient safety culture in staff members contributes to further develop quality in healthcare. In Italy there has been some experience in assessing patient safety culture in staff working in hospital. In this pilot study we explored patient safety culture in public health staff working in Italian Local Health Authorities. METHODS: We carried out a descriptive cross sectional study in four Italian territorial Prevention facilities in Northern Italy. We administrated an adapted Italian version of the US Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture to all the staff within these facilities. The survey consisted of 10 dimensions based on 33 items, according to the results of a previous psychometric validation. RESULTS: Seventy per cent of the staff responded to the survey (N = 479). Overall, six out of the 10 dimensions exhibited composite scores of positive response frequency for patient safety culture below 50%. While "communication openness" (65%) was the most developed factor, "teamwork across Units" (37%) was the least developed. The work areas with the highest composite scores were Management and the Public Health Laboratory, while in terms of professional categories, Physicians had the highest scores. Patient safety culture in the staff participating in this study was lower than in hospital staff. DISCUSSION: Our descriptive cross sectional study is the first to be carried out in Preventive medicine settings in Italy. It has clearly indicated the need of improvement. Consequently, several interventions with this aim have been implemented.

[Laboratory of construction research - ALS Bergamo - Lombardy Region]. / Laboratorio di approfondimento costruzioni - ASL Bergamo - Regione Lombardia.

The Regional Board of Construction Examination has established guidelines in health and safety matter to be adopted in yards during realization of works to elevated economic and/or strategic importance. The Regional Board's aim was to design an organizational model that can ensure every stage of construction design and realization safeguards the health and safety of workers. This can be achieved by implementing suitable preventive measures and adopting a set of coordinated tools for the safety officers in charge of the yard. Hence, the Regional Board designed an "ideal" model of the prevention and safety system. A significant decrease in the frequency and severity of accidents was observed in the yards, where the above-mentioned safety measures were implemented.

[The role of the factory doctor in the health promotion of workers: the experience of the "WHP Bergamo" network]. / Il ruolo del medico competente nella promozione della salute dei lavoratori: l'esperienza della rete WHP Bergamasca.

In Bergamo there is a huge network of 46 "health promoting companies" following an accreditation system which requires the implementation of best practices on health promotion in the workplace. For some of these practices, Company Doctor are involved: management of smokers and workers with alcohol consumption; courses for employees about WHP, use of SMS and web-based systems. Local Public Health Authority has created an annual training which also provided tools to Doctors for their activities in the project. Nowadays 55 doctors have been trained. For Accreditation 2012 eight companies will declare as good practice the training of its CD about smoking and three companies their activities on alcohol abuse prevention and control.

Treatment of chronic anovulation and corpus luteum deficiency with epimestrol.

Ten patients presenting with anovulatory syndrome (AS, 4 patients), inadequate luteal phase (ILP, 3 patients) and short luteal phase (SLP, 3 patients) were treated with epimestrol for 29 cycles in total. The initial treatment was always 10 mg/day for 10 days followed by a modification of the daily dose and/or length of treatment needed. Ovulation was induced in all 4 AS patients with an adequate luteal phase (ALP) in 3 of them. In all other patients (with ILP and SLP) an ALP was induced; 2 of them became pregnant. No side-effects were reported.