Background: Despite awareness that comparative analysis of patient safety data from several data sources would promote risk reduction, there has been little effort to establish an incident classification system that is generally applicable to patient safety data in European primary care.
Objective: To describe the development of a patient safety incident classification system for primary care.
Methods: A systematic review was followed by an expert group discussion and a modified Delphi survey, to provide consensus statements.
Results: We developed a classification system providing a mechanism for classifying patient safety incidents across Europe, taking into account the varying organizational arrangements that exist for primary care. It takes into account organizational processes and outcomes related to patient safety incidents and can supplement existing classification systems.
Conclusion: Classification systems are key tools in the analysis of patient safety incidents. A system that has relevance for primary care is now available.
Keywords: LINNEAUS collaboration; Patient safety; classification; medical error; primary healthcare; taxonomy.