Development of the prototype concise safe systems checklist tool for general practice.

Area of Science:

• Primary Care Medicine
• Patient Safety
• Health Systems Research

Background:

• Identified a need for a concise patient safety checklist in primary care.
• Existing tools and mandatory requirements under-represent certain patient safety areas.
• Developed a prototype checklist for busy general practice settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a user-friendly, concise checklist for primary care patient safety.
• To cover patient safety aspects not typically addressed by existing tools or regulations.
• To facilitate practice-wide discussions on patient safety processes.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a narrative review and global survey of general practice organizations.
• Utilized a RAND panel of international experts to rate identified issues and tools.
• Developed a 9-item prototype checklist, trialled in 8 practices, with qualitative feedback.

Main Results:

• The prototype checklist was found to be brief, easy to use, and facilitated staff engagement.
• Prescribing safety items were particularly valued by participants.
• Practices successfully implemented several checklist items, indicating high utility.

Conclusions:

• A concise patient safety checklist for general practice has been developed and is available online.
• The checklist is hosted by the Royal College of General Practitioners as part of a Patient Safety Toolkit.
• Recommended for senior practice staff to assess less-explored patient safety processes.