Patient Safety and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: A Repeated Population-Based Cross-Sectional Survey

Olga Amberger (), Angelina Müller, Dorothea Lemke, Hardy Müller, David Schwappach, Peter Wendt, Michel Wensing, Maria-Sophie Brueckle and Beate S. Müller
Additional contact information
Olga Amberger: Institute of General Practice, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Angelina Müller: Institute of General Practice, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Dorothea Lemke: Institute of General Practice, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Hardy Müller: Techniker Krankenkasse, TK, Unternehmenszentrale, 22305 Hamburg, Germany
David Schwappach: Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Peter Wendt: Techniker Krankenkasse, TK, Unternehmenszentrale, 22305 Hamburg, Germany
Michel Wensing: Department of General Practice and Health Services Research, University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Maria-Sophie Brueckle: Institute of General Practice, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Beate S. Müller: Institute of General Practice, University of Cologne, 50937 Köln, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: The coronavirus (COVID-19) has presented Germany with major challenges and has led to concerns about patient safety. We conducted an observational, population-based, nationwide, repeated cross-sectional survey on patient safety in Germany in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Each of the three samples consisted of 1000 randomly recruited adults. Self-reported data via computer-assisted telephone interviews were taken from TK Monitor of Patient Safety. Perceptions, experience, and knowledge relating to patient safety were assessed. The majority of respondents considered medical treatment to involve risks to patient safety. This proportion decreased during the pandemic. The majority also had a high degree of self-efficacy regarding the prevention of medical errors, whereby the percentage that felt well informed with regard to patient safety rose throughout the pandemic. The proportion of persons that suspected they had in the past experienced an error in their treatment remained steady at one third as well as the reported errors. In 2020, 65% of respondents thought health communication with service providers (e.g., extent and comprehensibility of information) remained unchanged during the pandemic, while 35% reported that medical appointments had been cancelled or postponed. This study is the first to assess patient safety from a general population perspective during the coronavirus pandemic in Germany. COVID-19 had a positive impact on perceived patient safety but no impact on suspected and reported errors. Self-efficacy with regard to medical error prevention steadily increased in the general population, and people considered themselves well informed.

Keywords: patient safety; coronavirus pandemic; PROM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/112/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/112/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:112-:d:1010885

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().