The Gaal questionnaire, a tool to introduce the Safety Culture

We have uploaded to “sanoysalvo files" the spanish version of the questionnaire developed by Sander Gaal, to know the perception that the health professionals of the risks to patient safety.

It is a very interesting questionnaire that has two parts. The first presents 10 situations of everyday practice and the second presents 15 factors that can influence the safety of patients. The questionnaire requests the value from 1 (not committed / not increase the risk for patient safety) to 5 (patient safety is very committed / greatly increases the risk) each of the 25 items.

It is not a questionnaire to evaluate, since there are no right answers, but is useful for input to the subject. The discussion of each of the situations or the importance of risk factors can facilitate an introduction-based daily practice, the concepts related to patient safety.

This approach to how professionals value the risks is essential in order to improve the safety culture, for if the perception of risk is low will be more difficult to be aware of the problem.

+ info: Patient safety in primary care: a survey of general practitioners in The Netherlands.
Gaal S, Verstappen W, Wensing M.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2010 Jan 21;10:21.


Posted by Fernando Palacio
English version by Jesús Moreno