Spire Murrayfield Hospital in Edinburgh is the only private hospital in Scotland to give crucial information that helps monitor the recovery of patients after surgery.
As BUPA called on private hospitals last night to start collecting and assessing patient information on joint surgery, among others, Murrayfield Hospital has already had a year’s worth of data analysed.
This is done in cooperation with the National Health Service.
The Scottish Athroplasty Project (SAP) has analysed this information from Murrayfield Hospital which was initially gathered by the Information Services Division (ISD).
The aim of the SAP project is to encourage continual improvement in the quality of care provided to joint replacement surgery (arthroplasty) patients.
Murrayfield Hospital submits information including theatre staff numbers and the levels of the surgical team’s expertise before, during and after athroplasty surgery.
If patients are admitted to another hospital once they leave Murrayfield for emergency complications like a stroke, haemorrhage or joint dislocation it is automatically flagged up as part of the audit.
As some of Murrayfield Hospital’s patients live as far away as the Shetland Islands and even abroad, analysing this information is crucial to ensure that the best possible care is given to its athroplasty patients before they leave hospital.
Consultants are informed about their own individual complication rates and, if needed, then begin an action plan of improvement.
Patients are allowed to ask what the rates of complications are.
SAP says complications such as dislocation and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) following joint replacement have all reduced significantly, proving the viability of this project.
For the first time, knee replacements in Scotland have overtaken hip replacement procedures.
The number of knee replacements has tripled in the last 15 years, from 1,819 in 1991/92 to 6,291 in 2006/07 and will probably double again in the next five years.
