It is generally agreed that patient safety is still a serious problem in the health care industry despite safety management systems aimed at continual improvement. This study suggests two factors control the relationship between safety management system components and continuous safety improvement: organizational safety priority and individual employee autonomy. Responses to the research survey of doctors and nurses demonstrated that increasing both factors increased the positive effect of organizing and assigning responsibilities and taking corrective actions on continuous patient safety improvement. This suggests that hospitals should balance the strict controls of safety management systems with autonomy for their health care practitioners.