EP-410 Improving data quality for emergency surgery: the effect of a dedicated NELA Fellow in a general surgical unit

Abstract

Abstract Aims The National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) has been running for over 8 years; despite this, there are still difficulties faced by some units and clinicians in having time and space to contemporaneously enter data and keep up to date. This study describes the improvements made to data quality after the introduction of a dedicated NELA Surgical Fellow in a single surgical centre. The role of the Fellow has been to liaise and engage with all members of the surgical team regularly to highlight the importance of accurate and timely data entry and, further, to produce monthly summaries of all emergency laparotomies and name surgeons who have not entered data. Methods The post of NELA Surgical Fellow was introduced at our DGH general surgical unit in August 2021. All patients who were entered onto the NELA database from our unit from January 2021 to July 2021 were compared to those entered onto the database after the introduction of the NELA Fellow. Results After the introduction of the NELA Surgical Fellow, contemporaneous data collection for patients has increased from 67% to 89% and the proportion of patients with complete data fields within a week after surgery has increased from 62% to 85%. The average time to complete data entry has fallen from 67 days after surgery to 52 days. Conclusions The introduction of a dedicated NELA Surgical Fellow, and the increased commitment to timely data collection, has led to improved accuracy of data and a faster completion time within just six months.