Post-pandemic patient safety: have the characteristics of incidents with harm changed? Comparative observational study in primary care via review of medical records with a trigger tool.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic generated or accelerated healthcare changes, some of which persist thereafter (e.g., healthcare reorganisation, remote consultation).

Validation of a Reduced Set of High-Performance Triggers for Identifying Patient Safety Incidents with Harm in Primary Care: TriggerPrim Project.

Objective: The aim of the study was to construct and validate a reduced set of high-performance triggers for identifying adverse events (AEs) via electronic medical records (EMRs) review in primary care (PC).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study for validating a diagnostic test. The study included all 262 PC centers of Madrid region (Spain).

Is primary care a patient-safe setting? Prevalence, severity, nature, and causes of adverse events: numerous and mostly avoidable.

Unlabelled: Knowing the frequency and characteristics of adverse events (AEs) is key to implementing actions that can prevent their occurrence. However, reporting systems are insufficient for this purpose and epidemiological studies are also required. Currently, the reviewing of clinical records is the gold standard method for knowing the frequency and characteristics of AEs.

[Prevention of infections related to health care in primary care. Lessons from the pandemic].

The health system failed to guarantee the safety of both professionals and citizens who came to the centers at the beginning of the pandemic. The lack of materials and guidelines for the prevention of infections caused in Spain the worst catastrophe in the history of patient safety and occupational health in healthcare. It also happened in other countries but Spain had the highest rates of infected health workers in the world.

[Primary care organization in pandemic times].

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the adoption of drastic changes in primary care, modifying the organization and work dynamics previously established. From one day to the next, professionals had to adapt to the new situation to be able to attend cases and contacts tracing, to avoid contagion and to maintain attention to other health problems. At the beginning of the pandemic, professionals had to establish new practices and care circuits in primary care in an improvised way, due to lack of updated guidelines, without adequate means of protection, evaluating their risks and benefits on the fly.