Volume 202 - Issue 4
Surveyors' perceptions of the impact of accreditation on patient safety in general practice
Authors: Amr Abou Elnour, Dale Ford and James A Dunbar
Med J Aust 2015; 202 (4): 178. || doi: 10.5694/mja14.01498
Published online: 2 March 2015
Published online: 2 March 2015
In reply: A new patient safety collaborative manual should help with capturing, analysing and preventing harm in general practice
In reply: We appreciate Philip's interest in our article and share her concern for the efficiency of clinical risk management — 45%–76% of adverse events in primary care are avoidable.1 There have been attempts to describe near misses, errors and harm in general practice, through accreditation using well evolved Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Standards, but there is no systematic mechanism to report, analyse and prevent adverse events in general practice.
Based on interviews with general practice staff2 and accreditation surveyors,3 literature review, and consultations with international and national experts on patient safety,4 a patient safety collaborative manual with an automated trigger tool has now been developed.5 This manual is intended to be used by the Australian Primary Care Collaboratives Program to improve patient safety in Australian general practice. It covers the major change concepts of engaging the team, data quality, identifying harm and preventing harm.
With this manual available, now is the time for action in a journey towards safer care through changing culture and creating a systematic approach to capturing, analysing and preventing harm in general practice.
Competing interests
No relevant disclosures.
References
- Makeham M, Dovey S, Runciman W, Larizgoitia I. Methods and measures used in primary care patient safety research: results of a literature review. World Health Organization, 2008. http://www.who.int/patientsafety/research/methods_measures/makeham_dovey_full.pdf (accessed Oct 2014).
- Abou Elnour A, Hernan A, Walker C, et al. Lessons from high performing general practices. 2nd International Primary Health Care Reform Conference; 2014 Mar 17–19; Brisbane, Australia. http://www.greaterhealth.org/media/1866640/abou_elnour___lessons_from_high_performing_general_practices.pdf (accessed Feb 2015).
- Abou Elnour A, Hernan AL, Ford D, et al. Surveyors' perception of the impact of accreditation on patient safety in general practice. Med J Aust 2014; 201 (3 Suppl): S56-S59. 3
- Dunbar J, Abou Elnour A, Morgan M, Ford D. “Doctors do not do mistakes”: developing a patient safety collaborative manual. 41st North American Primary Care Research Group Annual Meeting; 2013 Nov 9–13; Ottawa, Canada. http://greaterhealth.org/media/1835444/dunbar___doctors_do_not_make_mistakes___ottawa_2013___abstract.pdf (accessed Feb 2015).
- Abou Elnour A, Morgan M, Dawda P, et al. Patient safety collaborative manual. Centre of Research Excellence in Primary Health Care Microsystems, 2014. http://www.greaterhealth.org/resources/patient-safety-collaborative-manual (accessed Oct 2014).