About the Audit: Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit are:
- To enable secondary care providers to improve the delivery of care to patients undergoing emergency laparotomy using information produced by the audit.
- To provide comparative information on the organisation of care by providers of Emergency Laparotomy.
- To provide comparative information on patient outcomes following surgery for Emergency Laparotomy.
- To facilitate the development of effective change (quality improvement) initiatives and thereby spread examples of best practice and help local providers make the best possible use of audit results.
- To explore the potential for Patient Reported Outcome Measures to be included in the Programme if and when appropriate tools / collections become available.
NELA data will be linked to other sources of routine data including Critical Care Data (Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre case mix programme), Bowel Cancer Data (National Bowel Cancer Audit/Upper Gastro-intestinal Cancer Audit) and Hospital Episode Statistics (mortality data).
NELA will be delivered by a central project team from the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia's Health Services Research Centre based at the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Formal oversight will be provided by a Project Board consisting of key stakeholders. Scientific input will be provided by a Clinical Reference Group consisting of representatives from all relevant clinical professional and speciality stakeholders (including patient groups).
