Exploring patient participation in reducing health-care-related safety risks

Exploring patient participation in reducing health-care-related safety risks
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state of health, diagnosis, suggested diagnostic methods and treatment, expected results
and prognosis. The same regulatory aspects are formulated for nursing care. Article 45a
states that the doctor is obliged to report ADRs to the National Bureau for Registration
of Medicinal Products. There is a separate Ministry of Health regulation related to the
standardized method of reporting and the design of the reporting formulary. The Law
on the Profession of Nurses and Midwives lists the medicines a nurse (and a midwife)
may administer to a patient without instruction by a doctor.
The Law on Pharmacy defines the content of the “summary of product characteristics”,
including factors such as indications, dosage and method of administration,
contraindications, drug interactions and ADRs. Article 86 states that hospital
pharmacies must also participate in reporting ADRs to the National Bureau for
Registration of Medicinal Products.
The Law on Patients’ Rights and the Ombudsman for Patients’ Rights lists the rights
to obtain health care services in line with recent medical knowledge and receive
information on the process of care, covering the principles listed in Article 31 of the
Law on the Profession of Doctor and Dentist. Patients have the right to receive this
information and, having obtained it, to comment and present their own viewpoint. They
also have the right to obtain information about patients’ rights.
The Law on Accreditation regulates the process of accreditation of hospitals and primary
care facilities. Accreditation programmes developed for these two levels of patient care
address patients’ rights in medication safety by setting accreditation standards. Patients’
rights at both levels are therefore concurrent with those listed in the Law on Patients’
Rights and the Ombudsman of Patients’ Rights. The accreditation standards do not
refer directly to patients’ rights in terms of medication safety, nor do they define the
standardized content of a checklist or patient history.
The two main patient organizations –the Polish Patients Federation (5) and the Institute
of Patients’ Rights and Health Education (6) – do not deal with medication safety
and/or provide related patient education.
Focused pilot survey: “patient safety rights and medication safety”
Methodology
The survey was designed for the specific purposes of the study and focused on ADRs
at PHC level. It covered 50 family physicians and 50 patients using PHC services.
Respondents from both groups were located in five cities in southern Poland: Kraków,
Wieliczka, Nowy Targ, Zakopane and Krzeszowice.
Inclusion criteria for participation in the patients’ survey (Annex 4) were continuous
and repetitive pharmacotherapy (the use of at least one medication taken for a chronic
disease). The pilot aimed to describe whether patient safety rights can influence and
improve safe pharmacotherapy. Patients were asked to mark the appropriate response
for each of the questions. From the group of 50 patients approached, 49 completed the
survey.