Partner Case Study - North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust

THE BRIEF 

We were contacted by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust who were looking at setting up a digital method of capturing their Prescribing and Review of Antibiotics audit.  We had been providing a digitalised audit solution for NWAFT’s CD and Medicines Management audits for some time SE for a number of years, and the Prescribing Team wondered if our tool could be adapted to collect type of data. The hope was to improve engagement with the audit, provide analytical reporting, and improve efficiency and clarity reporting of audit results

THE SOLUTION 

We proposed a fully digital audit that can be accessed at any time via a weblink and more recently a QR code.  We used a selection of our Drugs Audit suite of tools, namely our bespoke online audits, historical data from NWAFT and reporting dashboards (by Microsoft PowerBI).

Designing the Prescribing audit and reports process was complex due to the requirement to allow the team to complete 10 patient’s prescriptions per ward per quarter.  We worked closely with Kerrie to ensure that we were able capture all elements and produce the reporting that the Trust required.

THE RESULTS

Reporting

Our audit solution allowed the team to complete the required 10 patient’s prescriptions, plus the facility to advise them, from within the audit, how many prescriptions had been reviewed and how many were still left to review.  We created specialist reports that aggregate the Quantitative data from the 10 prescriptions checked, but still highlight any Qualitative data from any single prescription.

Engagement

Prior to using the Drugs Audit digital audit, the results were as follows:

32% of pharmacists who completed the audit provided an overall satisfaction rating of 48.6%

It took an average of 8 minutes for data input for each patient.

Only 29% would re-engage with the audit in its previous form.  

After the implementation of the new tool:

Overall satisfaction increased to 78.1% and the

Average time for inputting data reduced to 2 minutes per patient (-76%)

100% of participants would continue with the new audit tool.

THE FEEDBACK

By increasing satisfaction with the auditing tool, the level of engagement for the AMS audit rose substantially. An increase in the submission of antibiotic prescribing data will directly impact patient care by helping to identify areas of improvement for AMS and shape plans to reduce inappropriate antimicrobial use.