Emergency Theatres Efficiency Improvement for SMOM procedures

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Background & Problem

The work was carried out solely in the Emergency Theatre and the patient group was of women who had suffered a miscarriage and were needing to come to theatre for surgical management. The main problem was the expectation of all parties that any SMOMs booked for the theatre would be completed by 9:30am. Records showed that two procedures had never been completed in this time, in fact only 27% of the time had one procedure been completed by that time.

Aim

Initial SMART aim was to ensure two procedures were carried out before 9:30am, 80% of the time by the end of November 2018. This was revised in October 2018 to be one SMOM before 9:30am, 80% of the time by the end of February 2019.

Method

Good communication with the ward, Gynae teams and the Anaesthetic teams through the Emergency Theatre coordinator was needed. A drive (PDSA) was put in place to ensure the timings for sending, completing the WHO checklist and the reasons for any delays or changes were also recorded.

Results

The changes resulted in an improvement from 27% before 9:30am to 48% with the efforts from all parties.

Implications

This needs to continue to be driven forward and the timings adhered to where possible until an alternative to carrying out the procedures on the Emergency list is found.