NELA eNewsletter - 17th Edition February 2015
National Emergency Laparotomy Audit
Patient Data Collection
With Year 1 of the NELA Patient Audit now well and truly behind us and the deadline for submitting cases to the audit's first year having passed, the NELA Project Team is incredibly excited to be almost a quarter of a way through Year 2 and to be in the midst of analysing the Year 1 patient data. By the time the 26th of January deadline had passed our online web tool had seen over 20,500 first year cases completed and locked, with 100% of participating sites submitting data. It's an achievement of which we are incredibly proud, and we hope you will be as well as it would not have been possible without your tireless work.
As the rush to get cases locked prior to the Year 1 deadline has now calmed down, we would very much like to remind NELA participants that the patient data collection side of the audit is still very much ongoing. One of the biggest lessons we have learned over the last year is that entering patient data is much more easily and efficiently done in real time, rather than having to chase patient information down retrospectively, oftentimes after the patient has been discharged.
You are therefore strongly encouraged to continue to collect and enter patient data from qualifying procedures as and when it becomes available with our hope being that this year proves to be even more successful than Year 1 of the audit. As always if there is anything the Project Team can do to assist with the data collection process, whether it be adding new users onto the web tool or answering question about the inclusion/exclusion criteria, please don't hesitate to let us know.
Web Tool Export Function for Quality Improvement
While we are very excited for the first NELA Patient Report to be published in July 2015 the Project Team would once again like to strongly urge sites to begin analysing their processes and outcomes from now. The best way to do this is by utilising the web tool's Export function. This allows users to transfer all their patient data onto an Excel spreadsheet from where it can be analysed and graphs and charts can be created allowing hospitals' Clinical Audit teams to examine specific QI indicators.
If you do not currently have access to the web tool's Export function and would like to be able to view your hospital's results on a spreadsheet format please contact your site's NELA Local Administrator or the NELA helpdesk and request that your account be granted Reporter Privileges. A key to assist you in analysing the export results can be found under the 'Support' tab on the web tool and in Documents page on the website.
Completing Year 1 Cases Post-Deadline
We have received several queries within the last few weeks asking if incomplete first year cases remaining on the system can and should be completed. If the complete information is now available for a first year case you are more than welcome to complete and lock the case. If alternatively you would like to slightly edit the data entered into a locked case that was submitted for Year 1 of the audit please contact the NELA helpdesk and we will review the matter accordingly.
Due to the fact that the Year 1 data has already been exported and the analysis process has begun, any changes to pre-December cases that are locked at this time will not be reflected in the first Patient Report.
Changes to Year 1 cases locked now however will still appear in the local web tool export and can be used for any local data analysis or QI initiatives that may be taking place at your hospital.
Anaesthesia & Perioperative Care Priority Setting Partnership
Prioritisation Survey
Over 3 million patients have an anaesthetic every year.
What research would help to improve their care?
Our initial survey in summer 2014 produced almost 1500 research suggestions. It's now time to choose the most important ones. Visit our prioritisation survey during February - March 2015 to tell us what you think are the biggest priorities for future research.
Vote for your top 10 and help shape the future of anaesthesia and perioperative care by clicking here.
Click here for more information about the PSP.
Upcoming Events Featuring NELA Speakers
The following events will also feature members of the NELA Project Team speaking about and answering questions on the audit:
• The Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) Conference 2015
27 February-1 March 2015, Glasgow
Emma Barrow (Surgical Fellow) Speaking
• Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) Anniversary Meeting: Beyond the Boundaries
11-12 March 2015, London
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) Speaking
• Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) HSRC/QuARC Meeting
17 March 2015, London
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) and Matt Oliver (Clinical Fellow) Speaking
• Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) Core Topics Conference
25 March 2015, Newcastle
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) Speaking
• Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) Core Topics Conference
22-24 April 2015, Manchester
Emma Barrow (Surgical Fellow) Speaking
• Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) Spring Symposium
14-15 May 2015, Edinburgh
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) Speaking
• Evidence Based Peri-Operative Medicine (EBPOM) Annual Congress
29 June - 3July 2015, London
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) Speaking
• Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) Annual Congress
22-25 September 2015, Edinburgh
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) Speaking
Additional Useful Tools on NELA Website
• Outlier Policy - Sets out the process by which participating hospital performance will be assessed and the process the NELA Project Team will follow to manage any hospital that is found to fall outside the expected range of performance and therefore flagged as an outlier
• Organisational Audit Action Plan - Provides an action plan to assist hospital sites in ensuring they are meeting all recommendations laid out in the NELA Organisational Report
• Set of Slides - A PowerPoint presentation focusing on the key findings of the NELA Organisational Report and how the report strongly emphasises the need for patient data to be collected and analysed
• Top Tips - List compiled of some of the most useful and effective advice that was sent into us by a number of the top performing NELA sites
• Frequently Asked Questions - Constantly updated FAQs reflect the most common and recent queries we receive from hospital staff and web tool users
• Help Box Text - Provides additional assistance for filling in each of the data collection questions and can also be found on the web tool by clicking on the 'H' button to the right of every question
• Proforma - A PDF copy of the latest Proforma, the online data collection questionnaire, that can be printed and filled out with patient information in real time, making it then easier to transfer all the information onto the online web tool
• Updated Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria
• NELA Poster & Leaflet - To publicise the audit amongst staff and patients in the hospital
• OPCS Labels - For procedure items in the NELA dataset
• Process Outcome Measures
• Organisational Audit Link to Standards
Certificate of Participation
To receive your copy of the NELA Certificate of Participation please contact your hospital's Local Administrator to request that a certificate be issued for you.
Organisational Audit Report
To download a copy of the full NELA Organisational Report as well as the Executive Summary please click here.
Sign up to receive the NELA newsletter
The NELA project team will be regularly publishing a newsletter informing those interested and/or participating in the audit on the latest developments.
If you would like to receive the newsletter for regular updates please sign up to the mailing list here.
NELA Twitter
The National Emergency Laparotomy Audit has launched its own twitter account. This will provide updates, news and links to important information on the NELA website. You can follow us @NELANews
Key dates
• Complete: Organisational audit
• Jan 2014: 1st year of data collection for patient audit commenced
• May 2014: Organisational Audit Report published
• Dec 2014: 2nd year of data collection for patient audit commences
• July 2015: 2nd Report Published (1st patient audit)
Contact info:
If you have any questions or would like to contact the project team email - info@nela.org.uk
