Abstract
BackgroundAdverse healthcare events are major public health problem with the heaviest burden in the low and middle-income countries. Patient safety awareness among healthcare professionals is known to impact this outcome; thus we set out to appraise the patient safety awareness among surgeons in Enugu, Nigeria.MethodsA multi-institutional cross-sectional survey was carried out among surgeons in Enugu, Nigeria and data obtained were analyzed using the statistical package for scientific solutions (SPSS) version 20 software.ResultsA total of 309 surgeons were surveyed. Majority of the surgeons (51.9%) had poor perception of patient safety issues. One hundred and twenty respondents (38.8%) have awareness of any institutional protocol for preventing wrong-site surgery while only 35 respondents (11.3%) regularly practiced an institutional protocol for preventing wrong-site surgery. The professional status of the surgeons and years in service showed significant association with perception of patient safety issues.ConclusionThe patient safety awareness and practice among the surgeons in Enugu, Nigeria is apparently low and this was found to be influenced by the professional status and years in service of the surgeon.
Highlights
Adverse healthcare events are major public health problem with the heaviest burden in the low and middle-income countries
The respondents are 309 physicians in the various surgical specialties with age ranging between 24 yrs. and 65 yrs. and practice experience ranging between 1 yr and 35 yrs
In a cross-sectional study involving surgeons attending a conference in India in 2014, whereas only 57% (81/142) of the surgeons had heard about the World health organization (WHO) surgical safety checklist only 32% (45/142) of them used it in their surgical practice [21]
Summary
Adverse healthcare events are major public health problem with the heaviest burden in the low and middle-income countries. Harm from adverse healthcare events resulting from medical errors are well documented with recent estimates [1, 2] put at contributing to 200,000 deaths annually in the United States of America alone, beside permanent disability and prolonged hospitalization of the victims and represents a major public health problem. Nwosu et al Patient Safety in Surgery (2019) 13:33 reduce such events In view of this concern, resolution WHA55.18, adopted by the Health Assembly in 2002, urged member states to pay the closest possible attention to the problem of patient safety and to establish and strengthen science-based systems necessary for improving patients’ safety and the quality of health care. A safety culture or climate involving the patient, healthcare professionals and the institutions is advocated to reduce the risk of adverse events relating to exposure to medical care and Zohar et al [9] have linked the safety culture in different types of healthcare organizations to patient safety outcome
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