OC-046 THE INGUINAL HERNIA OPERATION NOTES (GROIN) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

Abstract

Abstract Aim Accurate and comprehensive operation notes are crucial for patient safety, quality assurance and medico-legal purposes. Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most common surgical procedures. Thus, operative documentation should be precise and standardised. The GROIN project aims to improve the quality of inguinal hernia operation notes using an evidence-based proforma and an operation note composition software. Methods We retrospectively reviewed operation notes of inguinal hernia repair performed at our institution between August and November 2022. Operation notes were assessed against the Royal College of Surgeons’ Good Surgical Practice standard, consisting of 18 items. Results The operation notes from 89 cases were reviewed. High-scoring items included: operation name (100%), operative findings (99%), surgeon's name (99%), closure technique (98%), operation date (90%) and signature (90%). Postoperative instructions were sufficiently detailed in 79% of cases. Regarding mesh placement, 63% of notes described mesh size and type, whereas 30% documented only the mesh type. The lowest-scoring items were: venous thromboembolism prophylaxis (31%), designation as elective or emergency (22%), operative diagnosis (6%), and estimated blood loss (2%). Conclusions We identified several areas for improvement in inguinal hernia operation notes based on our results. The next step of the GROIN project is to standardise operation note creation by implementing an evidence-based template, which will be delivered through a novel operation note composition software. This will allow accurate record-keeping and efficient operative data extraction analysis. Efforts to standardise operative notes and enhance their quality on a national and international level are imperative for patient safety.