Patient Safety Walkrounds for Improving Safety and Quality of Care in the Penitentiary System of the Tuscany Region

The Health Department of the Tuscany Region, under the resolution of the regional council, n. 862 of 30th July 2018, approved a MoU between the Tuscany Region and regional Superintendence of Penitentiary Administration, aimed to carry out, with the scientific coordination of the regional Centre for Clinical Risk Management, a series of visits to most of the prisons of the region, with the purpose of evaluating the quality and safety of health assistance provided to people in prison. The method followed was that of Patient Safety Walkarounds adapted to the context. Each visit was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of experts from the field of patient safety and risk management, penitentiary medicine, mental health, primary care and representative of the penitentiary administration. Information were collected in a template that allowed a categorization according to the following factors: technology and work environment; organisational & management, team, communication and training. For the categorization of the information was used the London Protocol by Taylor-Adams S, and Vincent. Preliminary results related to 12/18 prisons showed that main risk factors for safety and quality of care were related to the organization and management followed by team factors and communication.