Ignacio Ricci Cabello is a biologist, holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health, and is a senior researcher at the Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands (IdISBa). He is also a member of the patient safety working group of semFYC (Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine).
In 2011, he began a research line focused on patient involvement to improve patient safety in primary care. He has co-led the development of the PREOS-PC tool (a questionnaire to measure patient safety in primary care centers based on information reported by patients) and the SinergiAPS tool (a web-based tool designed to facilitate the implementation of PREOS-PC in routine clinical practice). The description of these two tools will be the central theme of his presentation.
There is increasing interest and belief in the need to involve patients to achieve safer care for everyone. However, this requires a cultural shift (both among patients and healthcare professionals) and the availability of effective tools to encourage patient activation.
There are several tools aimed at involving patients to achieve safer primary care. The core of this webinar will be the introduction of the SinergiAPS tool and its use in the context of the SinergiAPS2 clinical trial (NCT05958108), which is currently ongoing. The SinergiAPS tool is designed to facilitate the collection of patient perceptions and experiences about safety in their health centers through the validated PREOS-PC questionnaire. This information is then shared with healthcare professionals to help them identify and address safety issues that might go unnoticed in their centers. During the webinar, he will share the results of surveys conducted with 11,000 patients, who have evaluated patient safety in 105 health centers across eight participating autonomous communities.
Patients have a unique and global (not fragmented) perspective on the healthcare they receive. Moreover, they have a strong interest in receiving quality and safe care. Therefore, they have both the capacity and motivation to provide valid information that complements and enriches the information already held by healthcare professionals, and which can contribute to improving patient safety by reducing adverse events. Ignoring this source of information is reckless.
There are very few validated tools for measuring patient safety at the health center level based on information provided by patients. The PREOS-PC questionnaire, which is validated in Spain and available in Spanish, Catalan, and Galician, has proven to be a useful tool for evaluating patient safety, capable of detecting differences between centers and changes over time.
The SinergiAPS tool, designed to facilitate the use of PREOS-PC, is currently being used in over 100 primary care centers in Spain. Its use is helping to reveal the most frequent safety issues (according to patient perceptions and experiences), as well as evaluate and compare the levels of perceived safety among different centers, management areas, and autonomous communities.
Detailed information about SinergiAPS and PREOS-PC is available at https://grappcaib.es/sinergiaps/
EQuiP is open to both Individual and Organizational Memberships. EQuiP offers a platform to improve the knowledge base and to improve closer collaboration between GPs / Family Doctors, researchers, educators, policy makers and organisations involved in quality and safety in family medicine and primary care.
