Abstract
BackgroundThere is a growing interest in identifying strategies to achieve safer primary health‐care provision. However, most of the research conducted so far in this area relies on information supplied by health‐care providers, and limited attention has been paid to patients’ perspectives.ObjectiveTo explore patients’ experiences and perceptions of patient safety in English general practices with the aim of eliciting patient‐centred recommendations for improving patient safety.MethodsThe Patient Reported Experiences and Outcomes of Safety in Primary Care questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 6736 primary care users registered in 45 English practices. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of responses to seven open‐ended items addressing patients’ experiences of safety problems, lessons learnt as a result of such experiences and recommendations for safer health care.ResultsA total of 1244 (18.4%) participants returned completed questionnaires. Of those, 678 (54.5%) responded to at least one open‐ended question. Two main themes emerged as follows: (i) experiences of safety problems and (ii) good practices and recommendations to improve patient safety in primary care. Most frequent experiences of safety problems were related to appointments, coordination between providers, tests, medication and diagnosis. Patients’ responses to these problems included increased patient activation (eg speaking up about concerns with their health care) and avoidance of unnecessary health care. Recommendations for safer health care included improvements in patient‐centred communication, continuity of care, timely appointments, technical quality of care, active monitoring, teamwork, health records and practice environment.ConclusionThis study identified a number of patient‐centred recommendations for improving patient safety in English general practices.
Highlights
There is a growing interest in identifying strategies to achieve safer primary health-care provision
This qualitative study examined patients’ perceptions and experiences of safety problems in general practices in England and identified a number of different factors that were perceived to affect safety as well as the lessons learnt by patients after experiencing safety problems
Our findings provide the basis for the development of a framework on recommendations for patients about how they could contribute to improve patient safety (Box 4)
Summary
There is a growing interest in identifying strategies to achieve safer primary health-care provision. Objective: To explore patients’ experiences and perceptions of patient safety in English general practices with the aim of eliciting patient-centred recommendations for improving patient safety. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of responses to seven open-ended items addressing patients’ experiences of safety problems, lessons learnt as a result of such experiences and recommendations for safer health care. Two main themes emerged as follows: (i) experiences of safety problems and (ii) good practices and recommendations to improve patient safety in primary care. Recommendations for safer health care included improvements in patient-centred communication, continuity of care, timely appointments, technical quality of care, active monitoring, teamwork, health records and practice environment. Conclusion: This study identified a number of patient-centred recommendations for improving patient safety in English general practices
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