Factors contributing to patient safety incidents in primary care: a descriptive analysis of patient safety incidents in a French study using CADYA (categorization of errors in primary care)

BACKGROUND: Patient safety incidents (PSIs) frequently occur in primary care and are often considered to be preventable. Better knowledge of factors contributing to PSIs is required to build safer care. The aim of this work was to describe the underlying factors, specifically the human factors, that are associated with PSIs in primary care using CADYA (“CAtégorisation des DYsfonctionnements en Ambulatoire” or “Categorization of Errors in Primary Care”). METHODS: We followed a mixed method with content analysis and coding in CADYA of PSIs reported in the ESPRIT study, a French cross-sectional survey of primary care. For each incident, a main contributing factor (MD) and, if applicable, a secondary contributing factor (SD) were identified. Several descriptive keywords from an incremental glossary have been suggested to describe each identified human factor (attitudes or behaviours). A descriptive statistical analysis was then conducted. RESULTS: Among the 482 PSIs reported in the ESPRIT study, from 13,438 acts reported by 127 participating general practitioners (GPs), we identified 590 contributing factors (482 MDs and 178 SDs). Overall, 35% were related to the care process, 30% to human factors, 22% to the healthcare environment and 13% to technical factors. The contributing factors, in decreasing order of frequency, were communication errors (13.7%), human factors related to healthcare providers (12.9%) and human factors related to patients (12.9%). The human factors were mainly related to ‘lack of attention’, ‘stress’, ‘anger’ and ‘fatigue’. CONCLUSIONS: Our results tend to prove that human factors are often involved in PSIs in primary care, with GPs and patients being equally responsible. Beyond the identification of communication errors, often found in other international research, we have described the attitudes and behaviours contributing to unsafe care. Further research exploring the links between working conditions and human factors is required. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12875-018-0803-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.