Title : Improving driving advice provided to patients with acute coronary syndrome on discharge: A quality improvement project
Abstract:
Background: Following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), a patient’s ability to drive might be impaired and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) provides guidance on driving restrictions post-ACS. The medical team is responsible for informing patients of driving restrictions that apply to them. During our day-to-day job we noticed that this was poorly done.
Aim: To improve the number of patients given clear driving instructions post-ACS to >90% in four months. To improve staff knowledge of driving advice post-ACS.
Methods: Fifteen clinical notes were audited to look for documented driving instructions post-ACS. Surveys were distributed to staff to evaluate their knowledge of driving restrictions post-ACS and to assess their current practice. The first implementation was a poster with driving advice post-ACS which was displayed on the cardiology wards. The second implementation was an acronym expansion with driving instructions pre-written to facilitate documentation. After each implementation, fifteen clinical notes were re-audited to measure their impact. This project was carried out between December 2021 and April 2022.
Results: Pre-intervention, 11% of patients audited had driving advice documented in their notes. This number increased to 26% and 38% following our first and second interventions respectively. At the end of the third cycle the number of staff who reported being aware of driving instructions post-ACS and imparting driving instructions to patients upon discharge increased from 72% to 90% and 41% to 80% respectively.
Conclusion: Simple measures such as introducing a poster and an acronym expansion with driving advice post-ACS have improved the quality of current instructions given to patients upon discharge as well as staff knowledge regarding the subject. To make this improvement sustainable, we hope to add a section on discharge letters dedicated to driving advice post-ACS.
Audience Take Away Notes
Driving advice following acute coronary syndrome is something that is often poorly done but has serious patient as well as public safety implications. Our project was done at a local scale and improved the quality of instructions given to patients upon discharge as well as staff knowledge regarding the subject. By presenting the project during the 2023 cardiology world conference, we hope to reach a large target audience who can be inspired by our project to implement changes in their local department and therefore helping to improve patient and public safety at a larger scale.
- Topic involves the safe discharge of cardiology patients. It is a public / patient safety topic.
- Interventions used during this project can inspire audience to make change in their hospitals
- Measures used during the project are simple to implement by other cardiology departments worldwide
