Healthcare Providers’ Perspective on Barriers to Patient Safety Incident Reporting in Lusaka District

Abstract

Background: Many studies from a number of different nations around the world have consistently demonstrated unacceptably high rates of medical injury and preventable deaths. However, research shows that patient safety from developing countries is still infrequent and that frontline healthcare practitioners have concerns about patient safety which are yet to be looked at. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring concerns related to safety of patients receiving clinical care. Methods: In-depth, face to face interviews with 33 frontline healthcare practitioners and managers were conducted. The sample was collected at two largest hospitals in Lusaka, one offering mental health and the other one acute health services. Results: The findings were broadly categorized into staff-related and institutional-related challenges. Most incidents committed by them were going unreported. Challenges in maintaining patient safety were also attributed to lack of guidelines, standardized reporting system, patient overcrowding, poor hospital building design and staff shortages. These make it challenging in maintaining patient safety measures. Conclusion: In as much as patient safety is one of the priority areas in most healthcare systems of developing countries, incident reporting is not being done across the board. A number of factors are acting as barriers. There is a lot more that need to be done in order to improve the safety of patients in most developing countries and thus, with the current trend, patient safety incidents will continue harming patients receiving clinical care as long as these barriers exist.