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.
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- 2. 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).
- 3. 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. <MJA full text>
- 4. 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).
- 5. 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).
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