Evaluation of points of views of medical staff over hospital, patient, patient safety and risk with the metaphor analysis

ABSTRACTMaster ThesisEvaluation of points of views of Medical Staff over Hospital, Patient, Patient Safety and Risk with the Metaphor AnalysisEsengül Gediktaş BozkurtDokuz Eylül UniversityInstitute of Medical SciencesDepartment of Quality Improvement and AccreditationQuality Improvement and Accreditation ProgrammeWith the paradigm shift in the medical sector in our country as in the whole world and the Transformation Programme in Health initiated in 2003, quality concept has gained prominence. Present institution culture in hospitals and the structure of relationship between patient (customer) and staff has a very significant place in the total quality management studies in hospitals. Medical staff?s perceptions of quality studies, patient safety / medical safety and risk in the organization are all significant issues in terms of quality studies.Objective of the study; to determine the present culture in the organization from the views of medical staff, perceptions of the staff over the notion of quality, the structure of the relationship between the patient and medical staff, patient safety / medical safety in the organization and risk status within the organization.As the findings are evaluated with the metaphor analysis, five organizational structures within the hospital become prominent and the large part of the staff describe the hospital as machine organization structure. When metaphors are analysed, it seems that most of the staff describe quality with the metaphors ?slow and dim-witted animals? and they have negative thoughts over the quality studies within the organization. They also pointed out the ?bossiness? type of relationship between the patient and staff. Most of the staff used metaphors containing danger for patient safety/medical safety. Many medical workers stated that risk within the organization was originated from environmental factors and when it occurred it was in an unacceptable zone.Key Words: Hospital Culture, Patient ? Medical Staff Relationship, Quality, Patient Safety, Risk, Metaphor Analysis