Safer primary care
Primary care services are at the heart of health care in many countries. They provide an entry point into the health system and directly impact on people’s well-being and their use of other health and care resources. Unsafe or ineffective primary care may increase morbidity and preventable mortality, and may lead to the unnecessary use of scarce hospital and specialist resources. Thus, improving safety in primary care is essential when striving to achieve universal health coverage and the sustainability of health care. Safer primary care is fundamental to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly to those related to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at every age.
Implementing system changes and practices are crucial to improving safety at all levels of health care. Recognizing the paucity of accessible information on primary care, WHO set up a Safer Primary Care Expert Working Group. The Working Group reviewed the literature, prioritized areas needing further research and compiled a set of key learning monographs. WHO has published a Technical Series on Safer Primary Care to make the work of these distinguished experts available to everyone with an interest in safer primary care.
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care
The Technical Series on Safer Primary Care explores different aspects of safety in primary care services and describes strategies and potential actions that could be prioritized according to local needs. The overarching aim of this technical series is to provide a compendium of information on key issues that may affect safety in primary care for building national capacity in designing and delivering safer primary care
The technical series contains nine monographs which summarize the evidence and experience on different strategies for improving patient safety in primary care. These monographs are intended for use by policy-makers, health care professionals, health care administrators and managers, health system planners, researchers and other stakeholders interested in improving patient safety in primary care.
Objectives of the technical series:
- to raise awareness about the causes and consequences of unsafe primary care;
- to provide accessible summaries about key issues to address when striving for safer primary care; and
- to help increase knowledge about how to design and deliver safer primary care.
Topics covered in this series
- Patient engagement
- Education and training
- Human factors
- Administrative errors
- Diagnostic errors
- Medication errors
- Multimorbidity
- Transitions of care
- Electronic tools
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Patient engagement
Health care systems are complex and include multiple stakeholders and providers. People using health care services have an essential role as co-producers...
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Education and training
The aim of this technical series is to provide a compendium of information on key issues that can impact safety in the provision of primary health care....
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Human factors
This monograph describes what “human factors” are and what relevance this approach has for improving safety in primary care. This section defines...
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Administrative errors
This monograph describes different types of administrative errors in primary care. It aims to raise awareness about issues that would need to be addressed...
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Diagnostic errors
Diagnosis is one of the most important tasks performed by primary care providers. Diagnostic errors can lead to patient harm from wrong or delayed testing...
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Medication errors
Medications are offered by health services throughout the world. However, with substantial and increasing medication use comes a growing risk of harm....
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Multimorbidity
People often live with many health conditions. Ageing populations and the increase in long-term conditions mean that the number of people with multiple health...
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Transitions of care
World Health Organization. (2016). Transitions of care. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/252272....
Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Electronic tools
This monograph aims to raise awareness among World Health Organization (WHO) Member States about the role of electronic tools and eHealth in safer primary care....
Webinar on Safer Primary Care
16 December 2016
As part of the launch of the WHO Technical Series on Safer Primary Care, a webinar was held on 16 December 2016. The webinar was chaired by Sir Liam Donaldson (WHO Envoy for Patient Safety), and more than 75 participants joined the webinar from many different countries across all WHO regions.
The rationale behind the development of the series was presented and reflections on the coordination process were shared. Respective authors introduced each monograph including key concepts, challenges and potential solutions. Practical next steps on implementing the technical series were offered which included the wider dissemination of materials, translations, fostering cooperation and collaborations, increased understanding of local contexts for adaptation and country support. An open floor discussion allowed comments and questions from participants to be addressed by the speakers, notably around the evidence and published materials on causes, strategies for improvement and measures for safer primary care.
The development of the technical series was coordinated by the WHO Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Unit, in the Service Delivery and Safety Department, with contributions from experts around the world.