Heartbeat: Singing praises of our clinical audit heroes

March 29, 2019

Following our first Clinical Audit Awareness Week in November, a national initiative to celebrate clinical audit within the NHS, colleagues were encouraged to nominate their audit hero, a healthcare professional who is passionate about improving patient care through clinical audit.

Our audit hero is Mr Anand Dhanasekaren, Urology Consultant, who was awarded a certificate and £50 Amazon voucher.

Mr Dhanasekaren was nominated by his department, including consultants and urology specialist nurses. He has encouraged medical students, junior doctors and specialist registrars to participate and has registered many audits within urology, with these audits leading to significant improvements in patient care and best practice.

The prize for the Best Clinical Audit was for an audit entitled ‘Thromboprophylaxis during pregnancy: appropriateness and cost effectiveness of prescribing Enoxaparin in the antenatal clinic.’ Enoxaparin is an anticoagulant medication used to treat and prevent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism during pregnancy. The intention is to use suitable treatments that safely prevent the formation of blood clots during pregnancy.

The aim of the audit is to determine the clinical appropriateness of Enoxaparin prescribing in the antenatal clinic and the cost effectiveness of supplying the medicine to patients. The audit also assesses the most appropriate route for pregnant patients to obtain Enoxaparin, in terms of whether it should be dispensed in a hospital or community setting.

Demonstrating excellent team work, the judges felt this ongoing audit was impressive because it is multi-disciplinary, involving both pharmacy and obstetrics and the strong patient benefits were evident. The following colleagues were involved in the audit; Summaya Mahamed Cabdi (Pre-Registration Pharmacist and Audit Lead), Akila Ahmed (Lead Clinical Pharmacist), Emily Horwill (Deputy Chief Pharmacist), Lorraine Cardill (Deputy Head of Midwifery) and Richard Murrin (Consultant, Haematology).

Angharad Macgregor, Head of Clinical Effectiveness says: “We know that SWBH participate in 64 national audits and over 300 local audits have been registered with us. If colleagues are involved in an audit that could lead to significant improvements in patient service, our team would love to know about it. So please get in touch. It could even lead to an award!”