Challenges to the Implementation of the World Health Organization's International Classification for Patient Safety in Slovenia

Abstract

Background and Objectives: 

Slovenia lags behind international recommendations for reporting and learning from patient safety incidents and risk management in health care. To counter this, the country established the SenSys project, which receives technical support from the European Commission's Structural Reform Support Service, in cooperation with the Danish Patient Safety Authority, and pertains to an initiative to improve health care. A subproject of the SenSys project works to adapt and implement the International Classification for Patient Safety of the World Health Organization (ICPS-WHO). This article presents a case study of the national research process to identify the necessary Slovenian national adaptation and upgrade of the ICPS-WHO, the ICPS-SL, particularly regarding types of patient safety incidents. Our aim was to reflect on how we used the insights from different research elements and learned from different aspects of our project/system development.

Methods: 

We used the SQUIRE 2.0 (Standards of Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence) to present our case study. The methods used to collect information on the necessary adaptations to establish an optimal ICPS-SL included a literature review, qualitative analysis of national consultation meetings, and a 2-cycle Delphi study. This process took place between January 2018 and August 2019, and we found 18 useful articles. Participants such as providers, users, and national bodies from national consultation meetings were all key stakeholders.

Results: 

The relevant stakeholders agreed upon changes to the ICPS-WHO to implement in the ICPS-SL as an integrated part of a Slovenia's incident reporting and learning system. Notably, they implemented changes in terminology in the translation of some English terms. They also added or hierarchically reordered some patient safety incident types: for example, they added the nation-specific point “treatment of pain” as a type of patient safety incident. The stakeholders will also partially integrate the following indicators: monitoring systems, vigilance systems, and complaint systems.

Conclusion: 

Different research elements contributed to the ICPS-SL's new knowledge and more reliable development. We emphasized a cooperative process with a consensus-building approach while linking the knowledge, experience, and needs of various stakeholders. All interested parties adopted this process, aiming to establish conditions for national learning from patient safety incidents and better preventive action for health care quality and safety. Vertical and horizontal multidisciplinary teamwork was a focal point as well. Technical assistance proved especially useful. It is now necessary to clinically test the ICPS-SL classification framework as Slovenia's internationally harmonized standard, and have the Health Council adopt it for use both online and in practice.