Improving the Quality of Cardiac Surgery Discharge Summaries

Sachin Patel, Alice Copperwheat, Marios Patronis

Background

• Cardiac surgery is complex with medication changes common.

• General practitioners need to be aware of any cardiac surgery operation and the patient’s post operative inpatient stay.

• Discharge summaries are completed by juniors and should match the guidance outlined within our departmental handbook.

Aims Aims

• To assess adherence of cardiac surgery discharge summaries to departmental guidelines

• To improve upon adherence of cardiac surgery discharge summaries to departmental guidelines.

Methods

• 1st audit cycle of discharge summaries between 2/9/22 and 28/9/22.

• Intervention: A lecture was given to juniors informing them of the baseline audit results and reaffirming what should be included within the discharge summary.

• 2nd audit cycle of discharge summaries between 6/10/22 and 3/11/22.

Results

Discussion

• Aim of 100% compliance across all domains not met.

• Operative details improved across most domains.

• Lecture was not given to thoracic and vascular juniors who may cross cover on weekends.

• Possibility of having a specific cardiac surgery template on the discharge summary system to improve compliance?