An integrated palmtop/desktop computer-based system for audit of acute pain services

Abstract

Abstract Traditionally, postoperative patient assessments have been made by ward nurses, who then record their findings on daily charts. Although all the information required to provide periodical reports is available, analysis of the data is, in practice, a long, laborious and difficult task involving manual sorting of the records in order to generate cross-tabulated data analysis tables. As the number of patients increases, the task of sorting the information becomes progressively more complex. Use of computerised data collection and analysis allows the acute pain team to demonstrate clearly and objectively the efficacy of different treatment protocols on various sub-groups of patients. Ultimately, by revealing the strengths and failings of local postoperative care, targets or standards may be implemented and appropriate adjustments or improvements made to the scheme. This article describes the implementation of a custom-built package allowing data collection on the Psion palmtop computer and subsequent analysis on a desktop computer.