In need of percutaneous coronary intervention in an arctic setting– patients’ experience of safety and quality of care: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Patients with coronary heart disease need timely treatment for survival and optimum prognosis. There is limited research exploring patients’ experience regarding distance to percutaneous coronary intervention. The aim was to explore patients’ experiences of aspects contributing to safety and quality of care regarding health services following percutaneous coronary intervention in Northern Norway. A qualitative explorative design was used, and 15 patients participated in individual semi-structured interviews 9–16 months after treatment. The reflexive thematic analysis revealed two main themes: (1) being part of a safe system and (2) adapting to new everyday life. Feeling safe and experiencing quality care depended on whether the participants were heard within the system upon first contact, whether help was available when needed, the travel time for treatment, sufficient information, the competency of care provided by healthcare professionals, and how follow-up services were organised when adapting to everyday life. To conclude, patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in an arctic context perceived healthcare services as safe when the system delivered continuous care throughout all levels. Consistent optimisation of transport time and distance to treatment, especially for rural patients, and extensively focusing on follow-up services, can contribute to improving safety and quality of care.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronary heart disease
• patient experience
• rural
• arctic
• feeling safe
• quality of care
• healthcare service

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Contributions of each author

AK, TAH, KTL, and GP were responsible for planning this study.

AK and TAK conducted the data collection and did the primary analysis and KTL and GP contributed to the validation of the analysis.

All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript, gave final approval, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of this work, ensuring integrity and accuracy.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to continued analysis and reporting of results. However, they are available from the corresponding author on reasonable requests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Northern Norway Health Authority under grant number 2019/359-56.