An audit investigating documentation of hospital urethral catheterisation and the improvements using proforma stickers

Abstract

Purpose

An audit was undertaken, aimed at investigating documentation of hospital urethral catheterisation in patients’ notes.

Design/methodology/approach

Standards were devised by the urology department and documentation of these standards was recorded. After identifying deficiencies in the quality of record keeping, proforma catheterisation stickers were produced and distributed throughout the hospital wards. The standards were then re‐audited a month later.

Findings

There was only 3 per cent full documentation using the catheterisation standards set for this study in the initial audit. In the re‐audit there was a 55 per cent usage rate of stickers. Of the notes with stickers 84 per cent had full documentation compared to only 2 per cent without stickers.

Practical implications

The use of proforma stickers improves documentation of urethral catheterisation in patients’ notes.

Originality/value

This paper identifies a way of improving documentation of urethral catheterisation in patients’ notes.

Citation

Tempest, H.V., Kumar, N., Rucker, J., Knight, A. and Saleemi, A. (2005), "An audit investigating documentation of hospital urethral catheterisation and the improvements using proforma stickers", Clinical Governance: An International Journal, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 165-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777270510594335