Safety and quality of healthcare from the user perspective: exploratory study of Facebook groups

Abstract

The aim of the study presented in this article is to discuss the safety and quality of health care using content shared in Facebook groups and to reflect on patient’s perspective on these issues. It is a qualitative study using as data source posts from three groups that addressed these issues on Facebook during the research period. Data analysis applied the Iramutec software, and it was based on thematic content analysis. Four categories emerged: incidents and adverse events; contributing factors; consequences of adverse events; reparation or mitigation of these incidents and adverse events. The users of Facebook groups described incidents and adverse events as ‘medical errors’. Despite the relevance to patients and family members who experienced adverse incidents and adverse events, the content of the posts regarding the events is rarely shared, which seems to indicate that these groups have been functioning as news portal of mainstream media.