Improving Patient Safety Practices in Critical Care Departments, Ibb Hospitals (Yemen): An Intervention Study

Background: Safety of health care is now a major global concern, it is likely that millions of people suffer harms related to medical care thus medical care related harms is now considered a global public health problem particularly in developing countries. Aim: To improve patient safety knowledge and practices in two Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in Ibb governorate (Yemen). Methods: The study was an intervention study conducted in two ICUs (one private and one governmental) in Ibb's hospitals. It passed through three stages; initial assessment of patient safety situation within studied ICUs, intervention stage including training, use of wrist band, verbal order documentation and critical values reporting, then re-evaluation to assess the changes happened after implementation of the intervention. Results: A total of 53 healthcare providers were enrolled in to the study; 31 in the private ICU and 22 in the governmental ICU. Less than half of healthcare personnel had good knowledge (45.2% in the private ICU and 40.9% in the governmental ICU), after implementation of intervention the knowledge improved significantly to be 100% and 95.5% in the private and governmental ICUs respectively. Patient safety practices also improved significantly after intervention. Conclusion: The overall patient safety situation in the studied ICUs was weak and it significantly improved after intervention conduction. Patient safety should be a top strategic priority for policy makers, managers and leaders. Institutional support, continuous monitoring, incidents' reporting as well as communication of the feedback to all staff members about patient safety performance are extremely crucial.