A little respect! A closed-loop audit increasing awareness of ReSPECT forms in a busy general surgical department

Aims ReSPECT forms have been introduced by Resuscitation Council UK to provide recommendations for patients’ emergency care. The primary aim of the audit was to assess the completion rate of ReSPECT forms on a busy surgical ward. Secondly, the audit aimed to both increase the awareness and the completion rate of ReSPECT forms. Methods Data was collected in the form of random spot-checks of completed ReSPECT forms for all general surgical inpatients at our general hospital. The first intervention involved the addition of a column to the surgical ‘take’ list to highlight the presence or absence of ReSPECT forms. Team education using a novel poster, prioritising the urgency of completion of ReSPECT forms dependent on patient’s co-morbidities, and a teaching session was the intervention for the second cycle. Results The initial completion rate of accurate ReSPECT forms was 31%. Following the first intervention the ‘ReSPECT column’ on the list had been completed for 15% of inpatients and the overall completion rate of ReSPECT forms was 35%. After the ReSPECT poster and teaching the usage of the ‘ReSPECT column’ increased to 39% and overall completion rate was 33%. Conclusions The addition of a column to the acute, surgical list was a simple and effective way of increasing awareness of completed ReSPECT forms. Increased compliance may be achieved by finding more efficient methods of monitoring completion. Overall completion of ReSPECT forms had improved with the interventions, however, due to the high turnover of surgical patients, there are still further improvements possible.

Citation

Paris Bruno, A., McKinlay, A., Eva, C., & Roe, T. (2023). A little respect! A closed-loop audit increasing awareness of ReSPECT forms in a busy general surgical department. British Journal of Surgery, 110(Supplement_6), znad241.386. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad241.386

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad241.386

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14709/530