Increasing patient safety in primary care
Although initiatives related to patient safety are on the increase, these are mainly focused on hospital and specialist care. This leaves a knowledge and practice gap regarding primary/generalist care, which in many EU countries represents the main access 'route' to healthcare. As such, millions of primary care interactions take place every day throughout Europe, with data pointing to anywhere from 5 to 80 safety incidents per 100,000 consultations. The majority of incidents fall into four categories: diagnosis, prescriptions, communication between patients and healthcare providers, and organisational or administrative problems. Estimates show that some 20 % of errors following primary care interactions could have significant consequences for the patients, at times even resulting in death. The 'Learning from international networks about errors and understanding safety in primary care' (Linneaus euro-PC) initiative was set up to contribute to a relevant knowledge base through a Europe-wide system for classifying adverse patient safety events at the primary care level. The results of the study will have far-reaching implications, allowing comparisons of safety events across Europe, harmonised development and use of primary care reporting systems, and agreement on the use of instruments assessing patient safety culture in primary care. Furthermore, advances in the project's work will grant a better understanding of diagnostic errors, and facilitate the development of strategies for learning to improve patient safety and recommendations for future research. Also, the groundwork will be set for establishing a Europe-wide network linking researchers, healthcare professionals and patient safety groups. To date, workshops have been held to finalise work on recommendations for a classification system of primary care patient safety incidents, and progress has been made toward developing the actual classification system. Reports have been produced on a systematic analysis of classification systems for use in primary care, recommendations for a primary care patient-safety classification system, and a taxonomy of errors for primary care. In ongoing work, Linneaus euro-PC partners also intend to develop a preliminary framework for accrediting health centres in rural and isolated areas. The focus will be on patient safety and achieving consensus through participant workshops and engaging with a wider network.
