Incorporating Safety Into Patient Experience Daily Huddles: Its Association With Patient Safety Culture in Ambulatory Centers.
Article
Arrieta, Alejandro, Arregui, Claudia, Sacha, Fiorela. (2026). Incorporating Safety Into Patient Experience Daily Huddles: Its Association With Patient Safety Culture in Ambulatory Centers.
. Journal of Patient Safety, 10.1097/pts.0000000000001558
Arrieta, Alejandro, Arregui, Claudia, Sacha, Fiorela. (2026). Incorporating Safety Into Patient Experience Daily Huddles: Its Association With Patient Safety Culture in Ambulatory Centers.
. Journal of Patient Safety, 10.1097/pts.0000000000001558
This study evaluated the association between integrating a structured patient safety component into existing daily huddles and changes in patient safety culture (PSC) in a large network of ambulatory centers in Chile. PSC is essential to reducing medical errors. Daily safety huddles have shown promise strengthening PSC in wealthier countries, but their implementation and impact on Latin American settings are limited.
Methods
A pre-post observational design was used to assess PSC across 85 ambulatory centers operated by a nonprofit health organization. A daily safety huddle (DD+safety) was introduced in 2022, embedding safety-focused discussions into operational morning meetings. PSC was measured using a validated survey adapted for Latin American settings, administered before (2021) and after (2023) the intervention. A seemingly unrelated regression model estimated the association between the intervention and 10 PSC dimensions.
Results
Positive and statistically significant associations were found in key dimensions, including communication openness, communication about errors, and patient care tracking/follow-up. The study highlights how structured, low-resource interventions can improve PSC even in constrained environments.
Conclusions
This study adds to the limited evidence base on effective PSC interventions in Latin American ambulatory settings, demonstrating that safety huddles, when integrated into existing workflows and supported by leadership, can be a scalable strategy for strengthening PSC. Practical insights on implementation in resource-limited ambulatory settings are provided to support replication in similar contexts.
