Awareness of community about patient safety, medical errors and patient engagement: a cross-sectional study

Objective: Preventable medical errors are recognized as an important public health problem. The aim of this study was to evaluate the awareness of adults in the community about patient safety, medical errors and patient participation; and to determine their experiences of medical errors. Methods: Adults older than 18 years living in the Konya city centre in Türkiye were included in the study. The implementation of the questionnaire took approximately two months, and a total of 780 valid questionnaires were obtained. Participants were asked questions about their views and attitudes towards medical errors. In addition, participants’ engagement in behaviours recommended by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to prevent medical errors was evaluated using a 4-point Likert scale. Results: Twenty-six percent of the participants stated that they or one of their family members had suffered a medical error. Those who were exposed to the error (n = 201) mostly experienced physical problems (44.3%). Other reported consequences included psychological problems (19.4%), disability (10.9%), loss of employment (5.5%), and death (2.5%). When the answers given to the questions about exposure to medical error and “whether the patients are responsible for preventing the errors” were compared with the socio-demographic characteristics, a statistically significant difference was found between age, education status, socioeconomic status, and experiencing with medical error (p < 0.05). Conclusion: A significant part of the participants were harmed while receiving healthcare services. In addition, their awareness of protecting themselves from this harm was low. The findings of this study can guide healthcare professionals for patient safety training for patients.