General Practice Doctors Bag and Emergency Bag Audit – A Quality Improvement Project (QIP) in a Rural Irish General Practice

Le résumé fourni par la source

Background: Rural general practitioners are typically located far from secondary care. As a result, they have to be able to manage many clinical presentations. One pivotal component is the doctor’s bag and emergency bag. Aim: To audit the doctor’s bag and emergency bag contents of suitable documentation, equipment and medications against standardised checklists. To create an online resource to monitor these contents. Methods: A list of medications, documentation and equipment in the practice doctors’ bag and emergency bag was undertaken. This was compared to a standardised checklist. An online intervention tool, the “Ampoule App”, allowed users to identify contents and expired items for each bag. The reaudit cycle allowed for replacement of outdated items based on the apps expiration dates. Results: The exact equipment, medications and documentation for our practice doctors’ bag and emergency bag were identified. The quantity and expiration dates of items were recorded. Fifty-eight out of 315 items had expired. These were replaced and this information was uploaded to the Ampoule App. Education and engagement with the app alerted users as to when a medication is due to expire in the future, therefore allowing adequate time to replace items. Conclusion: There was a desirable improvement in the contents of the doctor’s bag and emergency bag post intervention using the Ampoule App and re-education. This audit has led to an increased awareness of what we as GPs carry in our bags daily and how we prepare to deal with multiple medical presentations. Keywords: general practice, doctors bag, emergency bag, Ampoule App, audit

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