NELA eNewsletter - 22nd Edition July 2015
National Emergency Laparotomy Audit
First NELA Patient Report
We are very proud to announce that the 30th June 2015 marked the launch of the First Patient Report of the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit. It focuses on over 20,000 patient cases submitted over an eleven month period from January to November 2014 by 191 hospitals participating in the audit. The Report breaks down key outcomes and results by region and hospital so that sites can see how they compare to other hospitals participating in the audit.
We strongly encourage you to have a look at the report and your individual site's results; the full Report and the Executive Summary can be found under the Reports page of our website here.
The publication and outcomes of the Report were discussed on a number of media outlets, with our Clinical Lead Dr Dave Murray appearing on BBC Breakfast and Radio 4's Inside Health. The article which appeared on the BBC Health Website can be found here.
The NELA Project Team would once again like to convey its deepest thanks to everyone who has contributed to the audit over the past year and a half. As excited as we are about the Report being published we are very aware that it would not be possible without the tireless hours of hard work put in by participants in almost 200 hospitals. Allow us therefore to express a massive thank you to you and your colleagues for permitting us to write and publish the First Patient Report.
Patient Data Collection
In addition to viewing the results of the Report however it's also crucial to remember that the NELA Patient Audit is ongoing and a second report will be published in a year's time which will analyse the data being collected right now. It is absolutely imperative therefore to the continued success of the audit that case ascertainment rates remain as high as possible. The higher number of procedures being performed that we are able to capture the more accurate a picture of the state of Emergency Laparotomy in England and Wales we are able to report on.
The NELA Project Team would therefore like to once again urge participants to make sure that all qualifying procedures are being included for the audit and entered onto the system. Should you feel that there are a number of cases at your hospitals that are not being captured on the web tool please have a look through your site's theatre log so as to identify the patients currently missing from NELA.
NELA Sponsored Trainee Poster Prize at the AAGBI Winter Scientific Meeting
We announced in the June newsletter that we will be sponsoring a Trainee poster prize at the upcoming Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) Winter Scientific Meeting taking place from 13-15 January 2016. This is for the best poster that uses local hospital NELA data to bring about an improvement in the quality of care.
The event's organisers are now accepting abstract submissions and so we would like to draw the attention of those interested in applying to the event's submission page, here. The Project Team is greatly looking forward to viewing the submissions and seeing how NELA data is being used locally to drive quality improvement. Remember the closing date for abstract submissions is 23:59 on Monday 31 August 2015 and a cash prize will be awarded to the winner.
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:
• Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) Annual Congress
22-25 September 2015, Edinburgh
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) Speaking
• Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) Core Topics Conference
8 October 2015, Leicester
Emma Davies (Surgical Research Fellow) Speaking
• Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) Recent Advances in Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Management
2-4 December 2015, Birmingham
Mike Grocott (NELA Chair) Speaking
• Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) Winter Scientific Meeting
13-15 January 2016, London
Dave Murray (Clinical Lead) Speaking & NELA Trainee Prize
Additional Useful Tools on NELA Website
• Participant Manual - A compilation of all useful NELA background information and documents, the perfect introductory tool for a hospital user new to the audit
• Audit Protocol Document - Provides an outline on the structure of the audit, as well as all professional stakeholders involved
• 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
• June 2015: First Patient Report published
Contact info:
If you have any questions or would like to contact the project team email - info@nela.org.uk
