274 Peri-Operative Communication with Next of Kin (NOK) for Patients Receiving Laparotomies: A Complete Audit Loop with an Educational intervention

Abstract

Abstract Aim NICE Clinical Guidelines (CG138) specify the importance of involvement of family members and carers at key patient care junctures. Furthermore, published literature and our own experience reaffirm that ‘low-quality communication causes profound distress to families that can affect the quality of dying and bereavement'. There is little evidence on NOK’s experience for surgical patients, so we sought to assess whether NOK details were available and whether they had been contacted peri-operatively for patients receiving laparotomies. Method We performed a closed loop audit using NELA database to identify patients admitted for laparotomies between February 1st to July 31st, 2021. The initial data was collated, analysed, and presented during educational meetings with informal reminders for a week to implement changes. Thereafter, data was collected to complete the audit cycle on communication with NOK. Results A total of 70 patients were included. Prior to the implementation, 86% of patients undergoing laparotomies had NOK information documented in clinical records, with only 75% of telephone numbers reachable and 33% had documented evidence of contact within 48 hours post-operation. Post-implementation, 97% of patients had their NOK information in their clinical records, with 97% telephone numbers reachable and 41% had documented evidence of contact with 48hours. Conclusions The importance of clerical staff and clerking doctors establishing NOK’s details, documenting these within iCare/notes and establishing whether patient are happy with NOK being contacted for updates on patient management, could reduce distress and potentially improve the experiences of hospital admission, recovery and in some cases, bereavement.