[New ways to evaluate patient safety relevant topics: Patient-safety feedback].

BACKGROUND: Patient safety has become a hot topic, and there are numerous initiatives ongoing to improve patient-relevant processes. But how can both the effectiveness and sustainability of these initiatives be evaluated? The aim of the present paper was to describe the development of an instrument to assess patient safety aspects which can be used for normal hospital ward and intensive care unit rounds or in the operating room.

METHODOLOGY: All relevant patient safety guidelines and checklists of the University Hospital Graz were screened. Subsequently, questions were extracted from these documents which can be used in a checklist for "real-time" ward rounds by local observers.

RESULTS: Based on the document screening two sets of criteria were prepared, one for operating rooms and one for normal hospital wards and intensive care units. Using a survey tool two checklists were then generated on the basis of these criteria, which can be used for the so-called "patient-safety feedback" from the observers.

CONCLUSION: Whether guidelines or checklists, which should theoretically improve patient safety, are properly understood and applied as intended by healthcare professionals can only be evaluated by using methods like monitoring the respective processes. The checklists for conducting the so-called "patient-safety feedback" seem to be an effective instrument to assess patient safety-relevant processes in "real-time".