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A survey of the risk-management behaviours of Australian general practitioners

Maree Johnson, Sungwon Chang, Brooke Murphy, Sheryn Payne

Background To assist general practitioners (GPs) in minimising their risk of medical error, the education unit of a medical insurer developed a survey that assessed the risk-management behaviours ofGPs. Objective This study describes the risk-management behaviours of Australian GPs and how they vary by age, sex and workload intensity. Method A cross-sectional survey of 572 practising GPs, from a random selection of 1657 insured GPs, formed the data for analysis. GPs self-reported their behaviour using the valid and reliable Know yourRisk – GP-Non-procedural Scale. Results GPs reported performing risk-management behaviours frequently in six key areas: practitioner communication, facilitating patient responses, managing adverse outcomes, practice setting, diagnosis, and prescribing/treatment. Risk-management behaviours varied little by age, sex or workload, with ‘facilitating patient responses’ being a key domain in age, sex and workload differences (older GPs and women self-reported higher performance) later found to be not significant when the interaction of age, sex and workload was examined. Conclusion Most GPs were actively engaged in general risk-management behaviours. This selfassessment tool and education strategy identified areas for improvement for individual GPs. The initiative prompted GPs to seek additional education including practice reviews. This risk-management strategy would be applicable to sole practices, group practices and divisions of general practice. Workload intensity may be a major consideration in the focus and extent of participation in riskmanagement behaviours, and research using varying levels of workload intensity is recommended