Abstract Body

Primary care professionals (PCP) in Spain have a very low rate of reporting patient safety incidents (PSI). Care pressure and reporting burden are disincentives. Patients' complaints at primary care facilities regarding their care can be used as a source of PSI. The purpose is to analyze patient complaints (PC) in 4 health areas of Aragon Health Care Service (Spain) - covering 958,000 inhabitants- and identify those related to patient safety issues.

Methods: A simple random sampling was performed regarding all the claims issued in 2017 for primary care facilities. Total sample: 324 claims. Peer review was made with a checklist to identify PSI considering: sex and age of the patient, nature of PSI, professional involved, place of healthcare, severity, and avoidability of harm. Claims were reviewed by two researchers (kappa concordance test 0.94) and a third independent reviewer for disagreements. The three were family doctors.

Results: 24.3% (84/324) of claims are due to PSI. Family Doctors received 44.9% of claims. Among the PSI detected (84), 52.3% were due to problems in the healthcare process and 23.5% to coordination between care levels and waiting times. Regarding causal factors, 51 % involved diagnosis and 24.9 % management and communication issues. A total of 39/84 were PSI with harm of whom 4/84 (6%) were moderate and 2/84 serious harm. A total of 2.6% (1/39 PSI) were unavoidable while 97.4% (38/39 complaints with PSI) could have been avoided.

Conclusion: Patients' claims content PSI. The analysis and follow-up of claims regarding PSI can be considered as a source of information to improve PS in primary care.