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

Gazmend Bojaj, Gazmend Bojaj, Petrit Beqiri, Ilirijana Alloqi, Esther Vanpoel, Sara Willems, Nderim Rizanaj, Ilir Hoxha

Keywords: COVID-19; primary health care; PRICOV-19; quality of care; infection prevention and control; patient safety; family medicine; infectious diseases

Introduction:

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

Method:

Between December 2020 and April 2021, data were collected from Kosovar PC practices. Through the use of email, we distributed the questionnaire to 105 PC practices randomly selected from all seven regions of Kosovo (Prishtina, Mitrovica, Peja, Prizren, Ferizaj, Gjilan, and Gjakova). The questionnaire in the electronic form was not required to answer all of the questions when submitted.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 procedurefor infection control, and enhancing patient safety

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