Tools for primary care patient safety: a narrative review

Spencer, Rachel; Campbell, Stephen M.

Abstract

Background: Patient safety in primary care is a developing field with an embryonic but evolving evidence base. This narrative review aims to identify tools that can be used by family practitioners as part of a patient safety toolkit to improve the safety of the care and services provided by their practices.

Methods: Searches were performed in 6 healthcare databases in 2011 using 3 search stems; location (primary care), patient safety synonyms and outcome measure synonyms. Two reviewers analysed the results using a numerical and thematic analyses. Extensive grey literature exploration was also conducted.

Results: Overall, 114 Tools were identified with 26 accrued from grey literature. Most published literature originated from the USA (41%) and the UK (23%) within the last 10 years. Most of the literature addresses the themes of medication error (55%) followed by safety climate (8%) and adverse event reporting (8%). Minor themes included; informatics (4.5%) patient role (3%) and general measures to correct error (5%). The primary/secondary care interface is well described (5%) but few specific tools for primary care exist. Diagnostic error and results handling appear infrequently (

Citation

Spencer, R., & Campbell, S. M. (2014). Tools for primary care patient safety: a narrative review. BMC Family Practice, 15, Article 166. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-15-166

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 29, 2014
• Publication Date: Oct 26, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2018
• Journal: BMC Family Practice
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2296
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Article Number: 166
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-15-166
• Keywords: Patient safety; Primary care; Patient safety toolkit
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/737668
• Publisher URL: https://bmcfampract.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2296-15-166
• Related Public URLs: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/