Sudan Teaching Hospitals Use AHRQ’s Patient Safety Culture Survey and TeamSTEPPS

Two hospitals in the northeast African country of Sudan—Omdurman Teaching Hospital and the National Ribat University Hospital—are using AHRQ tools to improve patient safety.

Omdurman Hospital used AHRQ’s Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, which was translated into Arabic in 2008. As a result, and through efforts of members of the Middle East and North Africa Regional Network for Patient Safety Culture initiative, the Arabic version of the survey is also being used at facilities in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

"Having tools available in Arabic opened doors for implementation in additional countries besides Sudan," said Asaad Mohamedtaha, Ph.D., M.Sc., M.H.M., founder of the patient safety culture initiative. Dr. Mohamedtaha translated the survey to Arabic and adapted it to fit Arabic-speaking countries while conducting health management research at Omdurman Hospital. The facility is now considered to have set the standard for patient safety culture for teaching hospitals in Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa, he said.

"Developing a benchmark to measure patient safety was a great accomplishment for our region," Dr. Mohamedtaha noted.

From 2012 to 2015, he used AHRQ resources again in his work, which included an Arabic translation of parts of the TeamSTEPPS® 2.0 curriculum. This version of TeamSTEPPS was culturally adapted and field-tested at the National Ribat University Hospital as part of Dr. Mohamedtaha’s doctoral dissertation. The translated and adapted tools included the TeamSTEPPS Essential Instructor Guide, TeamSTEPPS pocket guide, Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire, and the Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire.

"Changing behavior is a complex and expensive process. However, using TeamSTEPPS in the Ribat University Hospital study proved that simple and low-cost interventions can bring a significant impact," Dr. Mohamedtaha said.

Using the TeamSTEPPS questionnaires, he compared the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture dimensions among a controlled group of trained TeamSTEPPS staff from general and pediatric surgery units with and a group of non-TeamSTEPPS-trained staff from neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture survey results identified patient safety issues, established a baseline, and were used to track the impact of TeamSTEPPS training and patient safety dimensions over time.

"The results speak for themselves; we saw positive and significant improvements in five of 12 safety culture areas after the TeamSTEPPS trainings," Dr. Mohamedtaha said.

Results from the Arabic version of AHRQ’s Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture show how TeamSTEPPS has helped trainees—the intervention group—improve patient safety strategies