Health Service Management and Patient Safety in Primary Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kosovo

Abstract

Background: Several changes must be made to the services to ensure patient safety and enable delivering services in environments where the danger of infection of healthcare personnel and patients in primary care (PC) institutions is elevated, i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: This study aimed to examine patient safety and healthcare service management in PHC practices in Kosovo during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire among 77 PHC practices. Results: Our main finding reveals a safer organization of PC practices and services since the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the previous period before the pandemic. The study also shows a collaboration between PC practices in the close neighborhood and more proper human resource management due to COVID-19 suspicion or infection. Over 80% of the participating PC practices felt the need to introduce changes to the structure of their practice. Regarding infection protection measures (IPC), our study found that health professionals’ practices of wearing a ring or bracelet and wearing nail polish improved during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. During the COVID-19 pandemic, PC practice health professionals had less time to routinely review guidelines or medical literature. Despite this, implementing triage protocols over the phone has yet to be applied at the intended level by PC practices in Kosovo. Conclusions: Primary care practices in Kosovo responded to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis by modifying how they organize their work, implementing procedures for infection control, and enhancing patient safety.

Application of SWOT Analysis to Assess Supervision of Primary Health Care Quality in Kosovo: A Qualitative Study

“…To address the health needs of the population, the government has continuously committed to improving the quality and safety of healthcare, balancing the insufficient budget, limited opportunities and best practices (13). Despite governmental efforts, PHC patients in Kosovo are less satisfied in comparison to other European countries (14), PHC lacks personnel, equipment and competencies to meet the health needs and expectations of the population (15), while the majority of PHC facilities have limitation related to the infrastructure of the practice to provide high-quality and safe care (16). There is a certain imbalance between quality efforts and quality provided and perceived in PHC therefore situation analysis is needed to help identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks of quality supervision in PHC in Kosova.…”

Barriers and Enablers Experienced by General Practitioners in Delivering Safe and Equitable Care during COVID-19: A Qualitative Investigation in Two Countries

“…Within the framework of public health and social measures (PHSMs), there was a strong emphasis on prioritizing infection prevention and control as integral components of care processes and procedures. For example, increased attention was paid to hand hygiene [4], the triage of patients before they entered the practice, a limited number of patients in the waiting room, and adjusting procedures for repeat prescriptions to avoid patients attending the practice [5][6][7].…”