Journal of Surgical Simulation 2016; 3: A: 5 - 5

Published: 25 February 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1102/2051-7726.2016.A005

Oral presentation

Special Issue: SIQINS – strengthening implementation of quality improvement interventions and methods in surgery

Emma Jones
Corresponding author: Emma Jones, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. Email: elj20@leicester.ac.uk

Abstract

Quality improvement (QI) activities are widely undertaken in surgery in an effort to improve care, often using techniques such as Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to implement specific interventions.  These interventions typically combine a number of elements (such as hand-washing education, video surveillance and double gloving protocol) into a quality intervention to achieve an effect such as reducing infection. Explicit definition of both the QI technique and quality intervention is necessary to enable effective interventions to be accurately replicated in practice. In this talk the results of a systematic review of 100 perioperative QI papers are presented. Each included paper was scored against the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist to ascertain the completeness of the intervention description. The most frequently missing TIDieR items were: fidelity (whether the intervention was actually delivered as planned: incomplete in 74%); modifications (incomplete in 73%) and materials needed to conduct the intervention (incomplete in 63%). A discussion of the results is accompanied by a brief reflection on the difficulties of designing a comprehensive systematic review for QI studies. Early results are also presented from an interview study where QI stakeholders were asked why reporting QI in surgery is often incomplete. Stakeholders include QI authors (individuals who write up QI reports), QI consumers (individuals using published work to change care) and QI gatekeepers (individuals who influence how reporting should be completed, for example, by reviewing articles or writing reporting guidelines). Participants have been recruited across the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia. 

Keywords

quality improvement; surgery; TIDieR checklist

Additional Information

This presentation was given at the Fifth Annual Homerton Simulation Conference: Innovations in Healthcare, Patient Safety and Simulation, Homerton University Hospital, London, UK, on 10 December 2015. This work has been accepted for publication as an article: Jones E, Lees, N, Martin G, Dixon-Woods M. SIQINS – strengthening implementation of quality improvement interventions and methods in surgery. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety 2016; 42 (in press).

Conflicts of interest: none declared.