[Analysis of notifications made in the Patient Safety Notification and Learning System in an autonomous community]

Abstract

Objective: Analyze the notifications made by Primary Care (PC) professionals of Galicia, in the Notification and Learning system for Patient Safety (SiNASP), of the Ministry of Health of Spain, its variables and the factors that contribute to its appearance for thus characterize security incidents in this healthcare field.

Materials and methods: This is a retrospective descriptive study of notifications made in PC, between October 2010 and December 2019, in the SiNASP, in the Autonomous Community of Galicia. The data are presented using absolute and relative frequencies. Incidents are determined on the total number of personnel of different professional categories. To contrast the relationship between different variables, the Chi-square test was used.

Results: 1863 notifications corresponded to PC (10% of the total). There were no differences in terms of sex, but it was observed that the incidence increases with age. The largest number of notifications was made by doctors, although, in percentage terms, pharmacists are the professionals who report the most incidents. The largest number of safety events occurred in consultations, with the most frequent being those due to a problem related to medication. Approximately 1 in every 200 incidents that reached the patient were classified as catastrophic.

Conclusions: Even though there are fewer notifications and possibly having a lower incidence than in hospitals, security incidents in PC are frequent and, sometimes, serious. Therefore, measures that influence the promotion of safety culture and raise awareness, in this sense, among managers and professionals in this healthcare field are essential.

Keywords: Adverse event; Atención primaria; Evento adverso; Incident; Incident reporting systems; Incidente; Patient safety; Primary care; Seguridad del paciente; SiNASP; Sistemas de notificación de incidentes.