Table 1.

Characteristics of validation studies in the review

Author/year	Country	Study purpose	Research method	Participants	Data collection method	Quality assessment
Gaal et al., 2011 (2)	Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovenia, and the England	To identify the most important patient safety improvement strategies in primary care	Web-based survey	58 physicians and researchers	Questionnaire	4/8
Szecsenyi et al., 2011 (25)	Germany	To examine the effectiveness of the European practice assessment in improving management in primary care practices, with a focus on the domain of quality and safety	Before-after study	2014 practice manager and general practitioners	Questionnaire	7/10
Van Duimen et al., 2011 (26)	The Netherlands	To document patient safety in primary allied healthcare in the Netherlands and to identify factors associated with incidents	Retrospective study	1000 patient records	Prevention and recovery information system	8/11
de Bruin-Kooistra et al., 2012 (7)	The Netherlands	To identify a set of indicators for monitoring the quality of maternity care for low-risk women provided by primary care midwives and general practitioners	Delphi technique	28 midwives, 2 GPs, 3 obstetricians, and 3 maternity assistants	Questionnaire	6/8
Wammes et al., 2013 (27)	The Netherlands	To identify the most important organizational items in primary care that could be targeted by programs to improve patient safety	Web-based survey	65 physicians and researchers	Questionnaire	6/8
Bell et al, 2014 (28)	England	To produce a set of patient safety tools and indicators	Mixed method	Nine internationally-recognised experts	Literature review and expert panel	21/21
Alameddine et al., 2015 (4)	Lebanon	To assess the readiness of care providers in the PHC sector for the implementation of quality and patient safety indicators	Cross-sectional survey	943 clinical care providers	Questionnaire	6/8
Bowie et al., 2015 (14)	England and Ireland	To identify, develop, and build expert consensus on ‘good practice’ guidance statements to inform the implementation of safe systems for ordering laboratory tests and managing results in European primary care settings	Mixed method	GPs, practice nurses and practice managers, as well as patient safety researchers and clinical educators	Review, observation, focus groups, and workshops	8/10
Daker-White et al., 2015 (5)	England	To synthesize published qualitative research concerning patient safety in primary care in order to build a conceptual model	Meta-ethnography	Forty-eight studies	Review	10/11
De Vries et al., 2015 (29)	The Netherlands	How GP practices manage patient safety aspects related to point-of-care testing in everyday practice	Web-based survey	750 GP practices	Electronic questionnaire	6/8
Frigola-Capell et al, 2015 (6)	Spain	To present an international framework for patient safety indicators in primary care	Mixed method	Nineteen experts (family physicians, academics, management, and health policy advisors)	Review and modified Delphi survey	8/10
Hernan et al., 2015 (3)	Australia	To identify the factors that contribute to patient safety incidents in primary care	Qualitative study	34 patients	Focus group and interview	8/10
Ricci-Cabello et al., 2016 (30)	England	To explore patients' perceptions and experiences of patient safety in primary care	Qualitative study	27 primary care users	Focus group	9/10
Ricci-Cabello et al., 2017 (21)	England	To explore patients' experiences and perceptions of patient safety	Qualitative study	6736 primary care users	Open-ended questionnaire	8/10
Singh et al., 2016 (31)	USA	To discuss the global significance, burden, and contributory factors related to diagnostic errors in primary care	Narrative review	-	Review	6/6
Tudor Carl et al., 2016 (22)	England	To identify the main causes of and solutions to medication errors in primary care	Qualitative study	57 clinicians	Open-ended questionnaire
Chaneliere et al., 2018(20)	France	To describe the underlying factors, specifically the human factors, that are associated with PSIs in PHC using CADYA	Mixed method	127 general practitioners	Focus groups and form	8/10
Ewald et al., 2018 (1)	England	To develop a set of quality indicators to assess and monitor pediatric primary care in Europe	Mixed method	Twenty-two of these pediatric experts	Systematic literature and consensus panel	16/21
Nora et al., 2019 (32)	Brazil	To identify the patient safety challenges described by health professionals in PHC	Scoping review	26 studies	Review	6/11
Fernholm et al., 2020 (33)	Sweden	To explore patients, who had experienced harm at the time of receiving PHC, and how primary providers and practice managers understood reasons for harm and possibilities to reduce the risk of harm	Inductive qualitative analysis	22 Patients	Structured questionnaire with free text answers	7/10
Gontijo et al., 2020 (17)	Brazil	To identify scientific production on safety-related aspects or characteristics in the performance of PHC professionals for professional safety constructs	Integrative literature review	16 articles	Review	7/11
Rocha et al., 2021 (23)	Brazil	To understand how patient safety actions are organized in the conception of PHC professionals	Qualitative approach	Two nurses and three dental surgeons	Online interviews	9/10
Silva et al, 2021 (34)	Brazil	To understand the perception of the PHC nursing team on patient safety	Qualitative approach	22 nursing professionals	Semi-structured interviews	9/10

Note: GP = General practitioneres; PSI = Patient safety incident; PHC = Primary healthcare; CADYA = Categorization of errors in primary care