Development of a checklist for auditing completion of patient report forms: A Delphi study

INTRODUCTION: Medical records are an integral part of patient care. Information loss during the handover from Emergency Care Providers to hospital staff is common and has a significant impact on patient care. Information loss can be prevented with medical documentation that is accurate, complete and contains the relevant information regarding patient management. Patient report Forms (PRF's) are used by Emergency Care Providers to record the details of their patient care and they form part of the patients’ medical records. Quality assuring of PRF's is required to determine if the required information has been recorded on the PRF. Checklists are one the means of quality assuring PRF, by comparing the points on the checklist to the content of the PRF. METHODS: An three-round Delphi survey was conducted with experts to determine the relevant information (data elements) required for the completion of a PRF including any additional South African – specific elements. RESULTS: Thirty-two experts participated in the Delphi survey, which identified 166 data elements for the check list and this was refined to a final 133 elements after collation by the researchers. A proposed checklist was developed. DISCUSSION: The Delphi process is a useful technique to develop a checklist. A checklist consisting of 133 total possible data elements to quality assure PRFs was designed. Further research regarding the use and reliability of the checklist is required.