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BMC Primary Care
Published in: BMC Primary Care 1/2021

Open Access 01-12-2021 | Care | Research

Patients’ perception of safety climate in Irish general practice: a cross-sectional study

Authors: Caoimhe Madden, Sinéad Lydon, Andrew W. Murphy, Paul O’Connor

Published in: BMC Primary Care | Issue 1/2021

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Abstract

Background

Although patients have the potential to provide important information on patient safety, considerably fewer patient-report measures of safety climate (SC) have been applied in the primary care setting as compared to secondary care. Our aim was to examine the application of a patient-report measure of safety climate in an Irish population to understand patient perceptions of safety in general practice and identify potential areas for improvement. Specifically, our research questions were:
1. What are patients’ perceptions of SC in Irish general practice?
2. Do patient risk factors impact perceptions of SC?
3. Do patient responses to an open-ended question about safety enhance our understanding of patient safety beyond that obtained from a quantitative measure of SC?

Methods

The Patient Perspective of Safety in General Practice (PPS-GP) survey was distributed to primary care patients in Ireland. The survey consisted of both Likert-response items, and free-text entry questions in relation to the safety of care. A series of five separate hierarchical regressions were used to examine the relationship between a range of patient-related variables and each of the survey subscales. A deductive content analysis approach was used to code the free-text responses.

Results

A total of 584 completed online and paper surveys were received. Respondents generally had positive perceptions of safety across all five SC subscales of the PPS-GP. Regarding patient risk factors, younger age and being of non-Irish nationality were consistently associated with more negative SC perceptions. Analysis of the free-text responses revealed considerably poorer patient perceptions (n = 85, 65.4%) of the safety experience in primary care.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that despite being under-utilised, patients’ perceptions are a valuable source of information for measuring SC, with promising implications for safety improvement in general practice. Further consideration should be given to how best to utilise this data in order to improve safety in primary care.
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Metadata
Title
Patients’ perception of safety climate in Irish general practice: a cross-sectional study
Authors
Caoimhe Madden
Sinéad Lydon
Andrew W. Murphy
Paul O’Connor
Publication date
01-12-2021
Publisher
BioMed Central
Keyword
Care
Published in
BMC Primary Care / Issue 1/2021
Electronic ISSN: 2731-4553
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-021-01603-9

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