Patient safety in primary care has many aspects: an interview study in primary care doctors and nurses

Abstract

Patient safety programmes have mostly targeted specific issues, such as incident reporting and medication safety. However, doctors and practice nurses had a broad view of what constitutes patient safety in primary care. This has implications for the measurement and improvement of patient safety in primary care.

Patient safety in primary health care: a systematic review

“…There was a balance in the yearly distribution of the articles' publication: four in 2007 9,10,11,12 , six in 2008 13,14,15,16,17,18 , three in 2009 19,20,21 , ten in 2010 22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31 , six in 2011 32,33,34,35,36,37 and four in 2012 38,39,40,41 (Table 2).…”

“…The study population consisted of physicians and other health professionals 9,10,13,14,15,16,19,20,22,24,25,28,30,32,33,34,35,36,39,40 , patients and families 26 , and health professionals and patients and families 11,21,23,27,29,31,41 , while in some studies the study population was not described in complete detail 17,22,38 (Table 2).…”

“…Studies that suggested solutions to make primary care safer for patients Nineteen studies 9,10,11,16,18,19,20,22,23,24,25,26,29,30,33,35,37,39,40 suggested solutions to improve patient Table 3 Studies with the objective of identifying types and/or contributing factors and severity of adverse events (AEs) in primary health care. safety.…”

“…Eight studies 13,14,15,17,21,27,32,34 aimed to identify the types and severity of incidents in primary care and their contributing factors; 19 studies 9,11,16,18,19,20,22,23,24,25,26,29,30,33,35,37,39,40 aimed to indicate solutions to make primary care safer for the patient; and six studies 12,28,31,36,38,41 aimed to evaluate the tools for improving patient safety in primary care.…”

“…Some studies used interviews to obtain data, either with physicians 25,33,39 or with physicians and other health professionals 24 . Questionnaires were also used by some authors to extract data, and were answered by physicians 22,40 , physicians and other health professionals 10,16,28,34 , or patients and family members 26,27 . Other studies used a combination of methods for data sources: incident reporting systems, direct observation, and focus groups 35 ; incident reporting systems, direct observation, and interviews 11 ; direct observation with audio recording 29 ; direct observation and expert consensus 36 ; incident reporting systems, patient file review, and interviews 41 ; incident reporting systems and patient file review 21 ; incident reporting systems, interviews, and questionnaires 30 ; expert consensus, questionnaires for patients, and focus groups 31 ; incident reporting systems, patient file review, and questionnaires 41 (Table 2).…”