Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35940697›Full record

ArticleBMJ open quality2022

Quality improvement initiative: how the setting up of an anaesthesia consultant-led perioperative outreach service addressed anaesthesia-specific issues to improve anaesthesia consult and surgery timings for hip fracture patients.

Wei Shyan Siow, Leeanna Tay, Chou Liang Mah

Abstract read
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Article in BMJ open quality, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Wei Shyan SiowDepartment of Anaesthesia and Surgical Intensive Care, Changi General Hospital, Singapore siow.wei.shyan@singhealth.com.sg.ORCID 0000-0002-1027-5898
Leeanna TayValueCare Programme Office, Centre of Performance Excellence, Changi General Hospital, Singapore.
Chou Liang MahDepartment of Anaesthesia and Surgical Intensive Care, Changi General Hospital, Singapore.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSurgery is recommended within 48 hours of hip fractures for better perioperative outcomes. Yet, such targets still commonly remain a challenge. Our institution is no exception.As part of a hospital-wide initiative, our anaesthesia department focused on improving perioperative processes with aims to reduce the time to first anaesthesia consult and surgery for hip fracture patients. Acknowledging multiple causes for surgical delay, we decided first to address anaesthesia-specific factors-(a) first anaesthetist contact usually happens after surgery is offered which leaves a short runway for preoptimisation, (b) this is compounded by varying degrees of anaesthetist involvement for follow-up thereafter. (c) There is a need to calibrate our perioperative care standards and (d) enforce more consistent auditing in quality assurance. This project was conducted in a 1000-bed hospital serving eastern Singapore.

interventionWe created an integrated anaesthesia consultant-led outreach service for hip fracture patients, based on a perioperative workflow system to provide proactive anaesthetist consults within 24 hours of admission in advance of surgical decision. This was streamlined with a coordinated follow-up system for preoptimisation until surgery.

methodsOur quality improvement project applied the iterative Plan-Do-Study-Act model from pilot to sustainability stage. We collected data at baseline followed by 6-monthly audits from electronic databases.Primary outcomes measured were time to first anaesthesia consult and surgery. Secondary outcomes included rate of critical care reviews and admission, mortality rate, length of stay and time to nerve blocks.

resultsPost implementation, our service reviewed >600 hip fracture patients. Median time to anaesthesia consult reduced significantly from 35.3 hours (2019) to 21.5 hours (2021) (p=0.029). Median time to surgery was reduced from 61.5 hours (2019) to 50 hours (2021) (p=0.897) with a 13.6% increase in patients operated <48 hours. Critical care admissions, 6-monthly and 12-monthly mortality rates and time to nerve block were reduced with a greater percentage of patients discharged within 10 days.

conclusionOur project focused on improving anaesthesia perioperative processes to address surgical delays in hip fracture patients. Our consultant-led anaesthesia service ensured that proactive anaesthesia care was delivered to provide sufficient time for preoptimisation with greater standardisation to follow-up, better communication and quality assurance.

Indexed as

Hip FracturesNerve BlockConsultantsHumansPatient DischargeQuality Improvementanaesthesiaaudit and feedbackPDSAquality improvementsurgery

Identifiers

PMID35940697
PMCPMC9364401

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.