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Table 1 Description of patient safety tool kit

From: Influences on the adoption of patient safety innovation in primary care: a qualitative exploration of staff perspectives

Name of tool

Description

Methodology

Participants

Estimated time to completion

Regions participating

Trigger Tool [20]

A system of rapid retrospective note review to allow clinicians to detect episodes of harm and patterns of error which might be occurring undetected in their practices.

Sample created of 25 random patients over the age of 75 to screen for any harm or patient safety incident. The Trigger Tool provides a framework for the case review that highlights any incidents of harm or near misses.

The data is summarised to promote reflection on learning points and learning needs on an individual or practice level.

Single or multiple GPs or GP registrars

90 min

All

PC-SafeQuest [20]

An online tool which is intended to be completed by all members of the practice team allowing for a quantitative assessment of the perceived climate of safety within a practice.

Staff are invited to complete an anonymised survey on line. Once completed by a sufficient number of staff, a report can be generated summarising the findings. These are presented as a score in one of four domains, (i) workload; (ii) communication; (iii) leadership; (iv) teamwork; and (v) safety systems. These scores are then used to facilitate discussions around any issues that emerged.

All practice staff. Participation is voluntary.

10–15 min per individual.

West Midlands

East Midlands

Greater Manchester

South Coast

Patient Reported Experiences and Outcomes of Safety in Primary Care (PREOS-PC) [20, 30]

A questionnaire to gather the experience of patients with respect to patient safety in general practice, and on patient reported safety outcomes. Questions are asked within five areas; practice activation; patient activation; experiences of patient safety events; harm; and general perceptions of patient safety.

Practice supplied with 150 envelopes containing the questionnaire, instructions for patients and a reply paid envelope. The practice will then produces the list of recipients and post the questionnaire.

Completed questionnaires are returned to the authors at the University of Oxford who produce and distribute a practice specific report.

A sample of 150 patients over the age of 18 generated by the practice. A GP is expected to check that this does not include vulnerable patients.

60 min

All

Prescribing Safety Indicators [20]

Indicators involve the use of CHART (Care and Health Analysis in Real Time) software to extract data on patients at risk of medication-related injury. There are 36 in total and include prescribing related to issues such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease, immunosuppression and laboratory test monitoring.

Install CHART software, download the prescribing safety indicators from PRIMIS Hub, run the computer queries on the GP clinical system and uploading the results to CHART online. The resultant data identifies at-risk patients for the practice who then upload an anonymised version to CHART online, aggregated and shared so practices can view their results in relation to other practices.

Various (including member of study team)

60 min

West Midlands

North Staffordshire

South Coast

Medicines Reconciliation Tool [20]

Used to assess the quality of medications reconciliation process on discharge with a focus on vulnerable patients.

Staff populate a data collection form using the discharge document, the consultation record and the medication record of 20 patients aged 65 and over discharged from emergency hospital between 3 and 6 months ago. This data helps to assess how promptly and how accurately medication changes suggested by the hospital have been made. It also assesses the extent to which changes have been discussed with patients.

Senior staff member collecting data from records

100 min

East Midlands

Greater Manchester

Concise Safe Systems Checklist for General Practice [20]

A checklist covering aspects of patient safety not covered by existing tools or legislation. Specifically relates to background systems in practices such as items relating to repeat prescriptions and logs of details of minor operations.

Completion of the checklist form by a practice manager or a senior clinician and used annually.

Senior staff member

30 min

North Staffordshire