Wound Classification Score Discordance in Pediatric Operations - A Quality Improvement Study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND\nWound classification scores are used to categorize the risk of postoperative infections. It was noted at our academic institution that wound classifications were often inaccurately recorded in the electronic health record. We thus instituted a quality improvement program, hypothesizing that this would improve charting accuracy.\n\n\nMETHODS\nOn June 1, 2019, we posted the wound classifications in each pediatric operating room (OR), provided OR nurses with teaching, and began including the classification in the postoperative surgeon debriefing. We performed a retrospective chart review of all general pediatric operations from June 19 to December 19 to compare classifications recorded in the electronic health record to the correct classification determined by manual review of operating reports. These data were compared with a similar chart review from 2018. To compare the efficacy of nursing versus physician focused changes, we compared our appendectomy data with a nearby community institution where the same group of surgeons practice. Pearson s Chi-squared test was used to report the significance of the differences observed in the concordance proportion, with 95% confidence intervals calculated using the Clopper-Pearson procedure.\n\n\nRESULTS\nOverall, 444 pre- and 179 postpractice change charts were reviewed. There were no significant differences pre or postpractice change. At the community institution, we noted a significant improvement in charting accuracy for appendectomies from 3.33% to 44.83%.\n\n\nDISCUSSION\nDespite implementing nursing and physician focused quality improvement practices, there was not a significant improvement in charting accuracy at the academic institution. However, we did note an improvement at the community facility where our pediatric surgeons also practice. We thus suspect that our nursing focused changes may have been inadequate. Future efforts will focus on providing intensive and sustained OR nurse training to help improve the wound classification charting accuracy.