Consider the following within the context of auditing your Cataract Surgery history. After examining a 63-year-old patient with a cataract, you discuss the option of surgery.
You include an obligatory statistic informing them of risk. You quote a statistic of 1/400 for the possibility of worse vision. Your patient recoils, exclaiming, “that seems a bit high!”
You now doubt yourself, and question your rate – can it really be that high?
You begin to suspect that your patient is questioning our ability as a surgeon. Do one in 400 of your patients really lose two or more lines of BCVA? Do some patients have a greater likelihood of BCVA loss? Can you identify them?
Are you able to provide a patient with a risk which is specific to their presentation? Is it acceptable to provide patients with a general figure, or can you provide them with a figure that relates to your surgery?
Is your complication rate improving?
We live in a era of data analysis – we have apps to track our heart rate, exercise, diet and sleep. We measure, and then we re-measure – with the aim of improving.
As surgeons, we take great pride in our work. But to improve we need to be able to objectively assess our progress. We are not in a competition. But without analysing our results, we cannot improve. Many of us look at audit as an onerous task, sifting through patient files and entering data into a spreadsheet. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Self-auditing can be a seamless part of your professional growth.
Index Health, in partnership with Best Practice Software, now have an integrated cataract surgery self-audit tool for Bp VIP.net.
When using our tool, your results will not be shared, your privacy will be maintained and we adhere to all Australian privacy laws. Index Health with Best Practice Software can be seamlessly integrated into your Practice, with minimal changes to your workflow.
Start using our Index Health cataract surgery self-audit tool, and begin assessing your progress today.
For more information see the Index Health website or contact Index Health at ben@indexhealth.com.au