Safety walk-arounds — a novel tool of quality and safety management in healthcare.

Introduction. Ensuring patient safety remains a top priority in healthcare: according to studies, up to 10% of hospitalized patients experience adverse events, more than half of which are potentially preventable. Unlike in the United States, where safety data are publicly available and influence hospital ratings, Russia lacks a unified system for recording medical errors, despite regulatory requirements. However, in 2022–2023, the Safe Healthcare Foundation initiated the development of an incident reporting methodology, recording 10,778 potentially preventable cases among 835,834 patients. The World Health Organization emphasizes that safety does not occur by chance but requires systematic efforts, including the development of a safety culture – a key factor in risk reduction. Although this direction is only beginning to take shape in Russia, some hospitals are already actively working in this area. One promising tool for improving safety culture is the use of safety walk-arounds – a practice borrowed from high-reliability industries such as nuclear energy and mechanical engineering. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of safety walk-arounds as a method for improving safety culture in a healthcare organization. Materials and methods. A prospective pre-post study was conducted in a multidisciplinary medical clinic. Safety culture was assessed using the standardized Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC). The program included regular monthly safety walk-arounds conducted by clinic leadership in hospital departments, using semi-structured interviews and subsequent feedback. Scores of seven key composites were compared before and after the implementation of safety walk-arounds, along with the number of reported errors and incidents. Results. After the implementation of the safety walk-arounds program, a statistically significant increase in the average safety culture score was observed – from 79.8% to 88.4% (p = 0.017). A notable increase in the total number of reported errors was also recorded during the program period. Conclusions. Safety walk-arounds proved to be an effective managerial tool for improving safety culture in a healthcare organization. This method can be recommended for integration into the quality and safety control system of medical care.