Abstract
BackgroundAdverse events (AE) are also the cause of suffering in health professionals involved. This study was designed to identify and analyse organization-level strategies adopted in both primary care and hospitals in Spain to address the impact of serious AE on second and third victims.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in healthcare organizations assessing: safety culture; health organization crisis management plans for serious AE; actions planned to ensure transparency in communication with patients (and relatives) who experience an AE; support for second victims; and protective measures to safeguard the institution’s reputation (the third victim).ResultsA total of 406 managers and patient safety coordinators replied to the survey. Deficient provision of support for second victims was acknowledged by 71 and 61 % of the participants from hospitals and primary care respectively; these respondents reported there was no support protocol for second victims in place in their organizations. Regarding third victim initiatives, 35 % of hospital and 43 % of primary care professionals indicated no crisis management plan for serious AE existed in their organization, and in the case of primary care, there was no crisis committee in 34 % of cases. The degree of implementation of second and third victim support interventions was perceived to be greater in hospitals (mean 14.1, SD 3.5) than in primary care (mean 11.8, SD 3.1) (p < 0.001).ConclusionsMany Spanish health organizations do not have a second and third victim support or a crisis management plan in place to respond to serious AEs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0994-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Adverse events (AE) are the cause of suffering in health professionals involved
Personal consequences for second victims are typically anxiety, negative emotional symptoms and loss of confidence in their professional skills and performance. We know that these second victims change the way they interact with patients in the aftermath of serious AE and that they become insecure about their practice [3, 6, 12, 14]
Interventions for second victims Overall, the degree of implementation of the proposed interventions was perceived to be greater in hospitals than in primary care (p < 0.001)
Summary
Adverse events (AE) are the cause of suffering in health professionals involved. Adverse events (AE) are the cause of harm and suffering in patients and may markedly affect the work, family and personal life of health professionals involved [1], second victims, as well as damaging the reputation of affected health organisations (third victims), by undermining people’s trust in these institutions [2, 3]. Between 28 and 57 % of physicians [4,5,6,7] (79–89 % in the case of residents [8, 9]) recognise having being involved in Professional and personal consequences affecting second victims, together with different supportive interventions attempted to address the associated stress, have been reviewed in various studies published between 2008 and 2015 [3, 12,13,14,15]. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of this approaches in reducing second victim symptoms
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