Quality & Safety Awards

Medisec Quality and Safety Awards 2018

Medisec sponsored the 14^th annual ICGP Quality and Safety Award which was presented on the 26^th of May 2018 at the ICGP Annual Conference in the Convention Centre, Dublin. The award recognises individuals who have led initiatives resulting in a positive effect on patient safety and quality of care in General Practice.

Three finalists were selected to present at the AGM as follows:
"Towards Safer Longitudinal Prescribing " was presented by  Dr Philip Sheeran Purcell, Dr Luke Sheeran Purcell and Dr Stella Burska of Ashford General Practice, County Wicklow. The practice introduced a prescribing protocol which highlighted any changes to long term prescriptions clearly to the pharmacy and  found a reduction in telephone enquiries on prescriptions and positive feedback from the relevant pharmacies.

Dr Denis O' Donovan from Cork presented his initiative "An Audit of the recording of blood test requests and results in Charleville Family Practice". He introduced a protocol to improve the management of laboratory test results. Each blood test performed was documented in the chart and the GPs were reminded to follow up the blood test with the patient 10 days later.  This led to improved psychological well-being of the doctors responsible for the tests.

The overall winner of the prize, Dr Diarmuid Quinlan of Woodview Family Doctors, in Cork presented his Quality improvement initiative: "Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke: ABCD of AF-Stroke Prevention in GP". This involved a multifaceted approach which aimed to reduce the frequency and severity of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Stroke. Patients were educated on the ACT-FAST criteria to recognise a stroke. All patients had a baseline ECG performed to detect AF and an AF register was created in the practice. A decision support tool (Keele Anticoagulation Therapy Decision-Support Tool Prevention of AF Stroke) was used to guide treatment in all cases of AF to ensure optimal oral anticoagulant initiation.


Dr. Emma Wallace, Chairperson of the ICGP Quality and Safety in Practice Committee, Ms. Ruth Shipsey CEO Medisec, Dr. Diarmuid Quinlan, Winner of the Medisec Quality and Safety Award 2018

Dr Diarmuid Quinlan speaks of his passion for quality improvement in practice and his excitement in winning the competition:

"One of the proudest moments of my professional life was winning the Medisec Quality and Safety in Practice award in 2018. This is truly a fabulous accolade: To come up with an idea, implement it locally, and see it recognized at national level is both empowering and immensely humbling. All GP registrars do a project and many of these have a patient safety/quality perspective. I absolutely encourage you to submit your project for these awards. It will also look great on your CV.
Finally, I wish to express my sincere thanks to the ICGP, and Medisec CEO Ruth Shipsey for this fabulous patient safety initiative. It is a visionary and a fertile source of ideas for improving quality and patient safety in every practice."