UK IBD Audit May 2012
Published: 17 June 2012
UK IBD Audit for the RCN Gastroenterology Newsletter
The 3rd round of the UK IBD audit is drawing to a close and it has again been a great success. We would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the published reports, give you an update on the ongoing biologics audit and importantly start helping you prepare for round 4 of the audit, which will begin in September 2012.
The audit began in 2006 and initially addressed service provision and inpatient care for adult patients with IBD. In round 2 (2008) the scope of the audit was extended to assess the same for paediatric patients with IBD. In this third round of audit three additional elements were assessed; IBD inpatient experience, a primary care questionnaire and an audit of the provision of biological therapies to IBD patients.
Overall round 3 of the audit has shown that care for patients with IBD is improving but many services are still not reaching the National IBD Service Standards, launched in February 2009 (click here to access the standards). The headline findings of each report are listed below (the national reports for each can be accessed by clicking the relevant heading):
Adult organisational audit report (click here)
72% of sites reported some access to specialist IBD nurses, although most still have levels of provision less than recommended in the IBD standards
Particular improvement in access to specialist advice (94% have a telephone helpline, 99% provide written information to patients)
Paediatric organisational audit report (click here)
A significant increase in the median number of WTE paediatric gastroenterology or IBD nurse specialists at each site
83% of sites now have at least some paediatric gastroenterology or IBD specialist nurse provision, compared to just 61% in 2008
Adult clinical audit report (click here)
In patient mortality in those with ulcerative colitis has halved over the three rounds of the audit
Percentage of patients being seen by an IBD nurse specialist during their admission has doubled since the first round
Paediatric clinical audit report (click here)
A significant increase in the number of paediatric IBD patients being seen by an IBD nurse specialist during their admission
Only 20% of UC patients had formal assessment of their disease activity made on their admission to hospital
Inpatient experience questionnaire report (click here)
Over 90% of patients regarded their care as good, very good or excellent
Effective team working related strongly to overall patient experience
Pain relief and nutrition were highlighted as particular areas for improvement
Primary care questionnaire report (click here)
GP’s want more information about local services for their patients (including contact information about IBD nurse specialists)
Only 41% of GP’s report being able to refer relapsing patients to hospital services within 7 days, for review
Biologics report – due to be published June 2012 and will be launched at the Digestive Diseases Federation (DDF) conference in Liverpool
Update from the ongoing biologics audit
Thank you to all of you that have already and continue to enter data to the biologics audit tool, all data entered to the system by 1700 on 29 February 2012 has been collated and included in the interim biologics audit report which is due to be launched at DDF in June. If you have yet to enter data to the system, you can register for a unique username and password by clicking here.
Using feedback from users we are continuing to develop the system and add functionality that will hopefully make it more and more useful to you. Recent developments include the ability to:
- export the raw data you have entered for all locked submissions into an excel spreadsheet, this will allow you at any time, to analyse and report on particular locally relevant areas of your biologics service
- produce a patient summary report, which details all of the treatment you have provided for a patient to date, including any adverse events. It provides the date by which the NICE annual review is required and the report itself. These reports can be used to replace manual entries in the case notes or be sent to a patient’s GP to demonstrate treatment received.
Please do provide us with your feedback in relation to this aspect of the audit by clicking here; your views will be used to improve the system wherever we can. You will continue to receive annual reports from this ongoing aspect of the audit.
Round 4 of the UK IBD audit (2012 – 2014)
Currently in the planning stages, it is intended that the methodology of the audit will be improved upon in round 4 to provide more reliable and accurate findings for participating sites. This will be achieved in part by a reduction to the data set allowing for an increased number of cases to be collected. Cases will also be collected prospectively, a significant change for this round. Data collection is likely to begin in early 2013 with UC cases collected and reported on during 2013 and CD cases collected and reported on in 2014. The biologics audit will continue to run throughout the 2 year extension with annual full national and site level reports produced. Collection of inpatient experience questionnaire data will allow for a first re-audit of this element. Again the audit will assess both adult and paediatric care and the full methodology is to be launched at the DDF meeting in June 2012. Correspondence explaining the new methodology in more detail will be circulated shortly to all sites that participated in round 3, if your site did not participate but you are keen to hear more please contact us using the details below.
Contact information:
Dr Ian Arnott: Clinical Director
Aimee Protheroe: Project Coordinator
Karen Kemp IBD Nurse representation on group (Karen.kemp@manchester.ac.uk)
Telephone: 020 3075 1565 / 1566
Email: ibd.audit@rcplondon.ac.uk