In low- and middle-income Asian countries, 1 in 10 patients suffer from healthcare associated harm, of which many are preventable. In stark contrast, several high-income Asian countries are highly regarded for their patient safety (PS) index ratings as well as their strong health system along with effective healthcare delivery. Despite the recent announcement of WHO’s declaration of patient safety as a recognized global health priority, various Asia-Pacific countries consistently have expressed their struggles in meeting some of the most basic necessities to providing safe care. Discrepancies in PS culture and implementable PS policies in Asian healthcare delivery are difficult to navigate given each Asian country’s widely heterogeneous and fragmented approaches. As PS is a global concern, different Asian countries having different standards of PS culture further discourages public health global solidarity.

To address discrepancies, an initiative known as Global Action for Leadership & Learning Organizations for Patient Safety (GALLOPS) was created in 2021 by the Institute for Patient Safety and Quality (IPSQ). Backed by WHO, GALLOPS is the first officially centralized platform for PS in Asia that can unify multi-sectoral leaders to effectively engage in PS policy drafts and influence advocacy through governmental impact. GALLOPS’s curriculum is mapped to the framework established by WHO’s Global Patient Safety Action Plans 2021-2030 (GPSAP). From October 6th through 12th of 2021, GALLOPS launched its first collaborative effort, conducting an inaugural webinar series with more than 170 health expert leaders across 15 Asian countries.

The first GALLOPS initiative called for the need for a patient safety landscape in the Asia-Pacific that shows each country’s current PS culture status. As a result, my team and I developed a revised GPSAP self-assessment tool to create an overview of PS culture status of participating Asian countries of GALLOPS. The GPSAP framework includes 7 strategic objectives which can be achieved by 35 strategies; we adhered to such guidelines for data collection to further articulate formulation of PS data across Asia. Furthermore, we incorporated in-depth feedback from qualitative analysis to provide PS data that accounts for local health needs and various regional medical context.

Our evaluation research holistically measures each participating country’s current PS culture through utilizing 1) GPSAP self-assessment tools provided by the WHO Framework for Action 2) qualitative analysis of health expert’s feedback of their respective country’s PS culture and their reasoning for GPSAP self-assessment responses. Our evaluation addresses the gap by curating a baseline data of each GALLOPS-participating country’s current PS status.

Aim1. Quantify effective strategies and limitations of 8 GALLOPS-participating countries through a self-rating instrument. Asian health expert participants have self-assessed their host institution’s PS needs for growth or change in the culture/standards when it comes to safety in various strategic domains, through guided indicators provided by the Global Patient Safety Action Plan (GPSAP) self-assessment tool. With the collected data, a constructive heatmap has been created to visualize the current landscape of PS levels in the Asia-Pacific.

Aim2. Qualitatively assess health expert participant’s personalized view of their respective country’s patient safety culture. The in-depth interview questions have been constructed via qualitative codebook guidelines of applicable CFIR domains. Interview responses from at least one GALLOPS participant from each country were collected for feedback for improving future GALLOPS-based efforts. Interview responses were then analyzed to match participants’ mentioned PS strategies according to the GPSAP guidelines.

Aim3. Gather in-depth feedback from 5 Singaporean health centers to identify notable PS practices currently adopted and utilized in Singapore. The qualitative and quantitative data gathered from engaging with the 5 Singaporean hospitals have significantly contributed to the cohesiveness of the inner workings of GALLOPS. As the spearheading organization of the GALLOPS platform, IPSQ has strengthened participation and advertisement of the GALLOPS-based initiative by engaging with notable Singaporean hospitals, namely Singapore General Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, and Singapore National Eye Center.

By the conclusion of this evaluation implementation, we have acquired 8 country-based quantitative data sets of 35 self-assessed PS strategies and qualitative data of at least one interview responses from each of the 8 GALLOPS participating countries. GALLOPS participating countries that also offered to provide self-assessment tool responses were Maldives, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, and India. Furthermore, we characterized each country’s PS condition, thereby providing better comprehension to the landscape in which the GALLOPS initiatives are intended to work. Our work pinpointed future directions for a scaled-up expansion of GALLOPS conferences and directly affects the upcoming conference called GALLOPS Pt.2 Conference Event held in November 2022. Our evaluative effort aligns with WHO’s GPSAP aims of building a transparent network capacity, articulating evidence-based training to Asian health experts and disseminating information to help shape implementation of global PS interventions over the next 10 years. Data collected from our evaluative research holds tremendous potential for future PS-based policies and actions for local and national governing bodies as well as privatized healthcare facilities in the Asia-Pacific. Such organization of data will supplement in building a brighter PS culture in Asia through feasible, sustainable, and collaborative approaches to healthcare delivery.