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The purpose of this study was to define what an operational failure is and determine how prevalent it is in a primary care setting. The authors had to define these operational failures in order to create criteria to use to evaluate the research papers. Operational failures were defined as system level errors involving the supply of necessary materials, equipment, or information to employees. These errors can interfere with healthcare workers' job performance and therefore complicate the delivery of high-quality healthcare. Operational failures can make or break a primary care center due to the time spent making corrections to the failures, such as equipment issues, scheduling, and other mundane activities. Potential complications include a reduction in patient safety, job efficiency, and healthcare worker satisfaction. Many studies have focused on cataloging the shortcomings of primary care. The authors of this study aim to characterize how physicians are affected by operational failures.
Previous literature related to operational failures is primarily focused on hospital settings. There is little information about operational failures and how they impact healthcare providers in primary care settings in the current published literature and this study addresses the gap. The authors also define some moments in crisis when there is a breakdown in system processes because of operational failures. The study used a critical interpretive synthesis technique, which i...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.