Impact of patients’ safety rights and medical errors on the patients’ security feeling: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Purpose

The regulation defines patients’ rights as a reflection of fundamental human rights in the field of medicine and incorporates all elements of patients’ rights accepted in international texts. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between patients’ safety, medical errors and patients’ safety rights with patients’ security feeling in selected hospitals of Mazandaran Province, Iran.

Design/methodology/approach

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in selected hospitals of Mazandaran Province in public, social and private hospitals in 2016. In total, 1,083 patients were randomly selected for the study. The developed tool (questionnaire) was used for data collection. Questionnaire validity was verified through experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s α coefficient (95 percent). Data were analyzed through multiple regressions by SPSS software (version 21).

Findings

The findings of this paper showed that the mean (standard deviation) medical error, patient’s safety, patient’s rights and patient’s security feeling were 2.50±0.61, 2.22±0.67, 2.11±0.68 and 2.73±0.63, respectively. Correlation testing results showed that medical error, patient’s safety and patient’s rights simultaneously had a significant relation with patient’s security feeling in the selected hospitals (p<0.05).

Originality/value

A simultaneous correlation between patient’s safety, patient’s rights and medical errors with patient’s security feeling in social security hospitals was higher than other hospitals. Hence, the authorities and officials of hospitals and healthcare centers were advised to make effective attempts to perceive the patient’s safety, medical errors and patient’s rights to improve the patient’s security feeling and calmness and also to make better decisions to promote the healthcare and therapeutic services.

Citation

Abedi, G., Mahmoodi, G., Malekzadeh, R., Khodaei, Z., Siraneh Belete, Y. and Hasanpoor, E. (2019), "Impact of patients’ safety rights and medical errors on the patients’ security feeling: a cross-sectional study", International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 215-224. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-01-2019-0001