HPB P36 Good Medical Practice: Patient's right to the information - An audit of the patient's understanding and satisfaction with the information provided to the patients with acute pancreatitis

Abstract

Abstract Background Acute pancreatitis is one of the important and common causes of abdominal pain presenting to the emergency surgical take. The incidence of pancreatitis in the UK is approximately 56 cases per 100,000 people per year. Due to variation in the causes, disease course, investigations and treatment, it may be confusing for the patient to fully understand all the information. NICE guidelines and good medical practice recommends ‘to give people with pancreatitis, and their family members or carers (as appropriate), written and verbal information in a way they can understand’. Methods The aim of this audit was to find out if adequate information as per the NICE guidelines was being provided to the patients and their family members, and to assess patients’ satisfaction in terms of the provided information. 30 patients who were admitted in the department of general surgery with acute pancreatitis were provided with a questionnaire containing 10 questions asking about the information provided to them about their condition by the healthcare professionals. At the end of the first cycle an intervention in the form of following leaflet was introduced and a re-audit was done: Results Overall, 60% of the patients were not satisfied with the information provided. None of the patients was provided written information and more than 90% were not explained condition with the help of a diagram. The other areas where the patients were not provided information were: investigations done (40%), treatment (60%), provision of verbal information (26%) and alcohol as the potential causes of the condition (27%). A re-audit was done the results of which are compared with the first cycle below: Conclusions This audit emphasized the need of a proper explanation of acute pancreatitis to the patients and their family members. It was also found that no leaflets were available for the patients. Results were shared in the surgical team group and a leaflet has been designed and distributed to every patient with acute pancreatitis. Second Cycle: After the introduction of the leaflet, improvement has been seen in almost all the areas of the information provided to the patients. Overall, satisfaction has improved from 60% to 92% in the patients admitted with acute pancreatitis.