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

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.</jats:p

(Dis)trust in doctors and public and private healthcare institutions in the Western Balkans

Introduction Considering the geopolitical changes in the six Western Balkan countries—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia—over the last three decades, particularly as it concerns the progress and changes in the healthcare systems, we argue that there is a need for a detailed analysis of people's trust in those healthcare systems and healthcare providers. Methods In this cross-sectional, intercountry study, we examine the trust trends of Western Balkans citizens in medical doctors and public and private healthcare institutions from 25 July 2021 to 30 October 2021, with 3789 participants using a self-reported questionnaire, and Google Forms. Snowball sampling is used to collect data from six Western Balkans countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Findings The primary findings of our study show that citizens in the Western Balkans have a low level of trust in their healthcare system (X̄ = 4.3/10). Medical doctors working in private healthcare institutions, on the other hand, are afforded a higher level of trust (X̄ = 6.6/10) than those working in public healthcare institutions (X̄ = 5.7/10). In the event that they or their family members need to visit a health institution, half of the study participants would choose private healthcare institutions over public ones. We found a statistically significant difference between countries on the mean points from the questions concerning one's trust in the healthcare system, private healthcare institutions and medical doctors working in public and private sectors (p < .05). Conclusion Despite its limitations, this study is the first cross-sectional research on the ‘trust interface’ among western Balkan citizens, revealing that they have low trust in their healthcare systems. Public Contribution The information in this manuscript was gathered on the level of 3789 citizens from six Western Balkan countries. Before we began collecting data, we conducted a piloting procedure with 40 citizens who were clients of health institutions to validate the data collection questionnaire