792 Assessing the Frequency of Daily Patient Reviews in a Local Orthopaedic Department
T Dorji, M Al Aaraj- Surgery
Abstract
Aim
To investigate the frequency at which patients admitted under a local orthopaedic department are having daily reviews by various teams, and to assess the level of clinical seniority that saw these patients.
Method
Patients primarily under the care of the orthopaedic department were assessed over a 10-day period in two different time frames across November 2022. These included all male and female inpatients presenting with any condition. Data was collected manually by going through the patient notes and the most senior orthopaedic doctor who saw the patient on that day was recorded as the main reviewer.
Results
73 patients with an average age of 76.0 years were included. Overall, patients were seen by orthopaedics on 58.4% of the days they were in hospital. 21.2% of these were done with a consultant present, 10.4% by a registrar, 17.6% by a senior house officer, and a foundation doctor in 9.2% of occasions. Outcomes were worse over the weekends, where 56.8% of inpatients did not get reviewed at all. There were also considerable differences between the various teams, reviewing their patients from 32.9% to 69.1% of the time.
Conclusions
Patients should ideally be reviewed daily as not only does it affect patient flow but also ensures vulnerable individuals are getting the timely care that they need. This pilot study showed a considerable lack in the number of daily reviews, with some patients not being seen for several days. Therefore, better organisation and accountability of the workforce is required to reach higher standards of care.