Global Assessment of Pediatric Patient Safety Tool for identifying safety incidents in pediatric patients

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Patient Safety
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Medical Record Analysis

Background:

• Patient safety incidents and adverse events (AEs) pose significant risks in pediatric healthcare.
• Accurate identification of these events is crucial for improving patient outcomes and healthcare quality.
• Existing assessment tools require evaluation for their effectiveness in pediatric settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of the Global Assessment of Pediatric Patient Safety (GAPPS) tool.
• To determine the efficacy of GAPPS in identifying patient safety incidents involving harm or AEs in pediatric patients.
• To assess the potential for GAPPS to inform preventative strategies for pediatric patient safety.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional, retrospective study design was employed.
• 240 medical records of hospitalized pediatric patients (under 18 years) from 2017 were analyzed.
• Systematic random sampling selected 10 charts meeting GAPPS criteria every 15 days from a total of 4,041 records.

Main Results:

• The prevalence of AEs was 12.5% (30 out of 240 records).
• A total of 53 AEs and 63 instances of harm were recorded; 84.1% of AEs were temporary, and 68.2% were preventable.
• The presence of a trigger in a medical chart increased the likelihood of an AE by 13 times, with a sensitivity of 48.5% and specificity of 100%.

Conclusions:

• The Global Assessment of Pediatric Patient Safety (GAPPS) tool proved effective in detecting patient safety incidents.
• GAPPS successfully identified events involving harm and adverse events in the pediatric population.
• The findings support the utility of GAPPS in enhancing patient safety monitoring and intervention in pediatric care.