Awareness and understanding among patients about patient safety in India: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study

Abstract

Background

There is a dearth of studies from India evaluating the awareness of patient safety. This study was performed to gain insight into the Indian patients’ awareness about patient safety and evaluate their willingness in promoting the same.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, online interactive sessions pertaining to patient safety and patient safety culture were arranged by clinical pharmacologists for 800 urban patients post-discharge from a tertiary care hospital in India. A validated questionnaire was used, and the responses were analysed using descriptive statistics.

Results

A total of 635 patients [mean age, 43.2 ± 10.3 years; 385 (60.6%) males] responded. A total of 93.4% of the patients were aware of the term “patient safety” and 35.3% faced situations where they felt that patient safety was compromised. Of these patients, 64.3% reported to higher authorities when faced with such situations, while the remaining either ignored the issue or had no idea about how to deal with the same. A total of 99.2% of the patients never participated in any patient safety program; nevertheless, 94.5% of them were willing to participate in the same. Accessibility to information about patient care was deemed essential by 58.3% of the patients.

Conclusions

Although the overall awareness about patient safety among urban Indian patients is high, there is a lack of awareness about ways of dealing with patient safety issues. Given the high level of interest in participating in patient safety programs, such programs should routinely include patients for optimizing the chances for safer provision of health care.

Keywords

patient safety patient safety culture awareness india

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

America I of M (US) C on Q of HC in, Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS. Errors in health care: a leading cause of death and injury [internet]. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2000 [cited 2021 Jun 13]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK225187/.

Patient Safety [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jun 13]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/patient-safety.

Steffner

McQueen

KAK

Gelb

. Patient safety challenges in low-income and middle-income countries. Curr. Opin. Anaesthesiol 2014; 27: 623–629.

General Patient Safety [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jun 13];Available from: https://www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca:443/en/Topic/Pages/General-Patient-Safety.aspx.

Slawomirski

Auraaen

Klazinga

. The Economics of Patient Safety. [cited 2021 Oct 13]. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/The-economics-of-patient-safety-March-2017.pdf.

Muralidhar

Taneja

Ramesh

. Patient safety culture-perception of health care workers in a tertiary care hospital. Int. J. Risk Saf. Med 2012; 24: 191–199.

Mitchell

PH.

Defining patient safety and quality care [internet]. In: Hughes

. Patient safety and quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2008 [cited 2021 Jun 13]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2681/

Madhok

Vaid

Carson-Stevens

, et al. Promoting patient safety in India: situational analysis and the way forward. Natl Med J INdia 2014; 27: 217–223.

Monaca

Bestmann

Kattein

, et al. Assessing Patients’ perceptions of safety culture in the hospital setting: development and initial evaluation of the Patients’ perceptions of safety culture scale. J. Patient Saf. 2020; 16: 90–97.

10.

Kim

. A first step toward understanding patient safety. Korean J. Anesthesiol. 2016; 69: 429–434.

11.

Jha

Larizgoitia

Audera-Lopez

, et al.

The global burden of unsafe medical care: analytic modelling of observational studies

. BMJ Qual. Saf. 2013;22:809–815.

12.

2018 - The economics of patient safety in primary and amb.pdf [Internet]. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/The-Economics-of-Patient-Safety-in-Primary-and-Ambulatory-Care-April2018.pdf. cited 2021 Jun 13.

13.

Ambwani

Misra

Kumar

. Medication errors: is it the hidden part of the submerged iceberg in Our health-care system? Int. J. Appl. Basic Med. Res. 2019; 9: 135–142.

14.

Pelzang

Hutchinson

. Patient safety issues and concerns in Bhutan's Healthcare system: a qualitative exploratory descriptive study. BMJ Open 2018; 8: e022788.

15.

Deng

, et al. Changing patient safety culture in China: a case study of an experimental Chinese hospital from a comparative perspective. Risk Manag. Healthc. Policy 2018; 11: 83–98.

16.

Davis

Jacklin

Sevdalis

, et al. Patient involvement in patient safety: what factors influence patient participation and engagement? Health expect. Int. J. Public Particip. Health Care Health Policy 2007; 10: 259–267.

17.

Sahlström

Partanen

Azimirad

, et al. Patient participation in patient safety—An exploration of promoting factors. J Nurs Manag 2019; 27: 84–92.

18.

Reader

Gillespie

Roberts

. Patient complaints in healthcare systems: a systematic review and coding taxonomy. BMJ Qual. Saf. 2014; 23: 678–689.

19.

Lahariya

Agarwal

de Graeve

, et al. Patient safety & universal health coverage in India. Indian J. Med. Res 2019; 150: 211–213.

20.

Landefeld

Sivaraman

Arora

. Barriers to improving patient safety in India: focus groups with providers in the southern state of kerala. Indian J. Community Med. Off. Publ. Indian Assoc. Prev. Soc. Med. 2015; 40: 116–120.

21.

national patient safety implimentation_for web.pdf [Internet]. Available from: https://main.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/national%20patient%20safety%20implimentation_for%20web.pdf. cited 2021 Jun 14.