Institute of General Practice, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Techniker Krankenkasse, TK, Unternehmenszentrale, 22305 Hamburg, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 22;20(1):112. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20010112.
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.
新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）给德国带来了重大挑战，并引发了对患者安全的担忧。我们在 2019 年、2020 年和 2021 年对德国的患者安全进行了一项基于观察、基于人群、全国性的重复横断面调查。每个样本由 1000 名随机招募的成年人组成。通过计算机辅助电话访谈自报的数据来自 TK 患者安全监测。评估了与患者安全相关的感知、经验和知识。大多数受访者认为医疗涉及患者安全风险。在大流行期间，这一比例有所下降。大多数人对预防医疗差错也有很高的自我效能感，自我效能感越高，对患者安全的了解程度也越高。自认为过去在治疗中出过差错的人的比例和报告的差错数量保持稳定，均为三分之一。2020 年，65%的受访者认为与服务提供者的健康沟通（例如，信息的范围和可理解性）在大流行期间保持不变，而 35%的受访者报告说医疗预约被取消或推迟。这项研究首次从一般人群的角度评估了德国冠状病毒大流行期间的患者安全。COVID-19 对感知到的患者安全产生了积极影响，但对疑似和报告的错误没有影响。普通人群对预防医疗差错的自我效能感稳步提高，人们认为自己有足够的信息。
