First experiences with patient safety initiatives in Greek rural primary care. Action research by the LINNEAUS collaboration on patient safety in primary care

Abstract

Background: Accreditation of primary care organizations within Greece is still in its infancy. Our task in Greece was to attempt to introduce a patient safety initiative in a local area, focusing on developing minimum standards for accreditation, assess whether a pragmatic approach would engage physicians, and provide evidence of improvement. Objective: To use monitoring of clinical performance as the basis for the launch of an accreditation system for primary care in Greece and to report on the process and lessons learnt. Methods: An established set of clinical indicators for patient safety was introduced in five Greek primary health centres. A web-based platform, for reporting practitioners’ scores on the selected indicators, was used to record the activity of the practitioners. Results: There was considerable variation in the use of clinical indicators by individual GPs. Following the intervention, the reporting on the indicators had increased while the scores on indicators only increased slightly. However, GPs engaged with the process and recognized its relevance to improving patient safety. Conclusion: We successfully piloted a means of engaging with GPs to improve patient safety using established indicators even where there was limited infrastructure to support such initiatives.

A Systematic Review of Measurement Tools for the Proactive Assessment of Patient Safety in General Practice

“…For this study, the analysis focused on one task which asked participants to identify three threats to patient safety in their office that they would prioritise for elimination if this was possible. 24 Staff interview:…”

Developing a research agenda for patient safety in primary care. Background, aims and output of the LINNEAUS collaboration on patient safety in primary care

“…Recognizing that a large component of primary care requires working across interfaces, we have provided a template for patient involvement that seeks to minimize patient safety incidents ( 22 ). Finally, we show that engagement with the patient safety agenda is not dependent on commitment from national authorities or additional resources ( 23 , 24 ). Using examples from our experience in Greece and Poland, countries where there is virtually no infrastructure to support patient safety initiatives, we show how physicians can use the resources we have provided to start the process of reporting, understanding their culture related to safety and even begin the process of developing a minimum accreditation system for patient safety.…”

A safety incident reporting system for primary care. A systematic literature review and consensus procedure by the LINNEAUS collaboration on patient safety in primary care

“…However, we tried to overcome this shortcoming by not restricting the literature search to specific countries. Another weakness is that we did not extensively test the feasibility and usefulness of the system in practice apart from using it in Poland and Greece as part of the LINNEAUS collaboration ( 14 , 15 ). However, the experience from these two pilots confirms our view that the form and web-based system can be used irrespective of the organization of primary care.…”