OBJECTIVES: To explore the attitudes and perceptions of patient safety culture for health care workers in China by using a modified Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) questionnaire. METHODS: The survey measuring 10 dimensions of patient safety culture with 36 items was conducted from 32 hospitals in 15 cities all across China. We computed descriptive statistics and Chi-Square test was performed to explore the differences on the perception of patient safety culture in groups of different work units, positions and qualification levels. SPSS 17.0 was used to perform data extraction and analysis. RESULTS: A total of 1500 questionnaires were distributed of which 1160 were responded validly (response rate 77%). Seven hundred and twenty two (66%) of the respondents were nurses, 386 (33%) were surgical clinicians and 343 (30%) were internal medicine clinicians. The positive response rate for the 10 patient safety culture dimensions ranged from 45% to 88%, the mean positive response rate was 65%. The lowest positive response rate of dimension was “Staffing” (45%), while the highest positive response rate of dimension was “Organization Learning-Continuous Improvement”(88%). The positive response rate of two dimensions of nurse was lower than that of physicians(“Overall Perceptions of Patient Safety” and “Communication Openness” P < 0.05). Furthermore, the positive response rate of physicians with high qualification (chief physicians) on two dimensions (“Overall Perception of Patient safety” and “Feedback & Communication About Errors” P < 0.05) was higher than those having a low qualification level (residents). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that amongst the health care workers surveyed in China there was a positive attitude towards the patient safety culture within their organizations.