Current Audits
External Audits 4th National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Difficult Airway Society - Major Complications of Airway Management in the UK Following nearly three years of detailed planning and considerable work by all those involved the results of the 4th National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Difficult Airway Society have been published (30th March 2011). The full report is available at: http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/index.asp?PageID=1089 . CEM has been a key partner in this work, which includes chapters on the major complications of airway management occurring in both the ED and ITU. The report contains a detailed section (Chapter 10; pages 79 to 85) on the ED and makes important reading with key lessons including the need for enhanced cooperation and planning with our anaesthetic colleagues, the routine use of waveform capnography in all intubated patients and the high failure rate of emergency needle cricothyroidotomy when compared to surgical cricothyroidotomy undertaken in both the ED and elsewhere. This report is likely to have a profound influence on anaesthetic practice in the UK, with the potential to improve the quality and safety of airway management in the ED. I would strongly recommend it. Professor Jonathan Benger, CEM Emergency Airway Lead National Audit of Seizure management in Hospitals (NASH) This audit is being conducted by the University of Liverpool. We encourage EDs to participate if possible - please read this update from Steff Nash (16th Mar 2011). Details are available at www.nashstudy.org.uk Urgent and Emergency Care Clinical Audit Toolkit A learning tool to support the quality of urgent and emergency care services for patients has being launched on 30th March 2011 by the Royal College of General Practitioners. Go to the Audit Guidance page for more information and to download the toolkit. NCAPOP and Audit Resources The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) manages and develops the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP). In addition HQIP is developing guidance and resources to assist local clinical audit programmes. www.hqip.org.uk
Audit contacts
It is important for the College to maintain contact details for Consultants and administrators responsible for audit in their Departments in order to keep them informed of audit developments. Please notify the College administrator of any changes to your contact details (see details below).
Support
Should you have any questions please e-mail philip.mcmillan@collemergencymed.ac.uk or phone 020 7067 1269.
Results
Your Department’s audit data will be compared against previous and national results. Reports for 2010/11 were e-mailed to EDs on Thursday 28th April 2011.