SinergiaAPS | SinergiaAPS
SinergiaAPS: Promoting Patient Safety in Primary Care Through the Patient Experience
SinergiaAPS ("Synergies between professionals and patients for Safe Primary Care") is a tool designed to help Primary Care health centres improve patient safety by reducing adverse events. In Spain, it is estimated that three million adverse events occur annually in Primary Care-many of which are preventable when the appropriate resources are in place.
An Evidence-Based and Participatory Approach
SinergiaAPS was developed by a multidisciplinary team, including both patients and healthcare professionals, and is based on the premise that patients are an essential source of information for identifying safety incidents.
The tool uses the validated questionnaire Patient Reported Experiences and Outcomes of Safety in Primary Care (PREOS‑PC) to systematically gather these experiences.
Pilot studies have demonstrated the strong potential of this intervention, achieving a 42% reduction in avoidable hospital admissions in the centres where it was implemented. [1]. The EVISAP group is currently coordinating SinergiaAPS2, a multicentre clinical trial involving 108 health centres across Spain to evaluate its large‑scale effectiveness [2].
Services and Objectives of SinergiaAPS
Implementing this tool in health centres allows the following objectives to be achieved:
- Risk identification: Assess patient safety from the direct perspective of users.
- Benchmarking and analysis: Obtain automated comparative reports with other participating centres.
- Capacity‑building and improvement: Design specific action plans based on actual problems detected, supported by training resources and recommendations available on the platform.
- Monitoring: Track and evaluate the impact of implemented improvement measures.
[1] Serrano-Ripoll MJ, Fiol-deRoque MA, Valderas JM, Zamanillo-Campos R, Llobera J, de Labry Lima AO, Pastor-Moreno G, Ricci-Cabello I. Feasibility of the SINERGIAPS ("Sinergias entre profesionales y pacientes para una Atención Primaria Segura") intervention for improving patient safety in primary care. Fam Pract. 2022 Sep 24;39(5):843-851. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmac015. PMID: 35253839.
[2] Fiol-deRoque MA, Mansilla GV, Maderuelo-Fernández JA, Tamayo-Morales O, Martín-Luján F, Astier-Peña P, Chacón-Docampo M, Orrego C, Gens-Barberà M, Andreu-Rodrigo P, Ricci-Cabello I; SinergiAPS team. Evaluation of SINERGIAPS, an intervention to improve patient safety in primary healthcare centers in Spain based on patients' perceptions and experiences: a protocol for a hybrid type I randomized clinical trial. Front Public Health. 2024 Mar 26;12:1324940. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1324940. PMID: 38596515; PMCID: PMC11003190.
How the Service Works
The SinergiaAPS methodology is structured into three key phases:
- Assessment: Administration of questionnaires (online, telephone, or face‑to‑face) to a sample of patients from the centre.
- Results: Generation of a centre‑specific audit report to identify critical areas.
- Action Plans: Creation of a working group within the centre to design and implement improvements using resources available on the website.
Responsible Team
The tool is managed and coordinated by the EVISAP Group