Quality Improvement on Patient Safety Practices in Dialysis Service
Patient Safety; Quality Improvement; Renal Dialysis
Introduction: Hemodialysis is a modality of renal replacement therapy indicated for patients with renal injury and at potential risk for adverse events. Therefore, patient safety practices must be implemented and encouraged to improve quality, using strategies such as quality improvement cycles. Objectives: To evaluate the effect of a quality improvement cycle on patient safety practices in a hemodialysis service. Methodology: This is a multimethod study conducted in two stages. The first stage is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach to evaluate the safety culture of resilience. The second stage is a quasi-experimental, pre- and post-intervention study, without a control group, with a quantitative approach, developed through the implementation of a quality improvement cycle for patient safety practices in the hemodialysis service. Both stages were conducted between April 2023 and April 2024. The study analyzed dialysis patient care, patient records from the unit, the hemodialysis safety checklist, and incident reports for the improvement cycle, considering eight criteria based on indicators adopted by ANVISA's Patient Safety Practices in Dialysis Services to assess the quality level of patient safety practices. During the reevaluation, the Resilience Safety Culture (RSC) questionnaire, translated and adapted to the Brazilian cultural context, was applied to assess the culture of resilience. The pre- and post-evaluation data were presented in Pareto diagrams to highlight the level of improvement and its significance. A descriptive statistical analysis of the RSC data was conducted, with the results presented in tables. The study received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the Walter Cantidio University Hospital under CAAE No. 75601123.3.3001.5045. Results: The initial evaluation revealed low quality levels in all criteria, except one, which showed 100% compliance. In the reevaluation, there was an absolute improvement of 73.95% in the other six criteria compared to the initial evaluation. The Resilience Safety Culture (RSC) analysis showed a positive perception in most domains within the context of rapid changes in the complex challenges faced by the dialysis unit. Conclusion: The improvement cycle proved to be effective in quality improvement and patient safety in dialysis renal.