Abdelaziz, Shahd;
Garfield, Sara;
Neves, Ana Luisa;
Lloyd, Jill;
Norton, John;
van Dael, Jackie;
Wheeler, Carly;
... Franklin, Bryony Dean; + view all
(2024)
What are the unintended patient safety consequences of healthcare technologies? A qualitative study among patients, carers and healthcare providers.
BMJ Open
, 14
(11)
, Article e089026. 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089026.
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Abstract
Objective To identify patient-safety-related unintended consequences of healthcare technologies experienced by their primary users: patients, carers and healthcare providers (HCPs). Design Qualitative study based on data collected in online focus groups. Transcripts were analysed inductively after each focus group using reflexive thematic analysis, focusing on identifying unintended consequences of healthcare technologies with implications for patient safety. Patient safety was broadly conceptualised to include a more subjective concept of ‘feeling safe’ as well as risks of actual harm. Setting Patient/public and HCP participants from the UK with experience in healthcare technologies were recruited using a mixture of purposive, convenience and snowball sampling. Participants 40 participants (29 patients/public, 11 HCPs) took part in 5 focus groups between November 2021 and February 2022. Results We identified five main themes of unintended consequences with implications for patient safety: inequity of access, increased end-user burden, loss of the human element of healthcare, over-reliance on technology and unclear responsibilities. Both groups of participants identified unintended consequences directly affecting patients; HCPs also described those affecting themselves. Some unintended consequences are described in previous literature, including alert fatigue, the ‘illusion of communication’, reduced opportunities for face-to-face interactions and increased end-user burden. Others are potentially novel, including patients’ psychological dependence on technologies, ‘gaming’ of data entry and incorrect interpretation of health data. Conclusions Drawing on the perspectives of patients/public as well as HCPs, we identified five areas of patient-safety-related unintended consequences associated with healthcare technologies. These should be considered when developing tools to identify and mitigate the patient-safety-related unintended consequences of healthcare technologies.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | What are the unintended patient safety consequences of healthcare technologies? A qualitative study among patients, carers and healthcare providers |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089026 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089026 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy > Practice and Policy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10201113 |
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