British Paediatric Neurology Association
Audit Matters

Audit Matters, June 2004

There were 9 of us at the open Audit Group meeting in Sheffield during the BPNA conference this year.

  1. The Clinical Toolbox This is now up and available to you at www.bpna.org.uk. It has archive, current (registered or endorsed) and draft areas where you can find audit data collection sheets, guidelines and assessment tools. Many thanks to Carlos De Sousa.
    Contact William Whitehouse (Nottingham) 0115 924 9924 ext 44476

  2. Acute Transverse Myelopathy Members are circulated by post every 4 months, to notify the investigators, in this pilot of a BPNA-SU audit run by Mike Pike and Christian De Goede.
    Contact Mike Pike (Oxford) 01865 220649

  3. ADEM Similarly members are circulated by post every 3 or 4 months, to notify the investigators of this BPNA-SU audit run by Chris Rittey and Santosh Mordekar.
    Contact Santosh Mordekar (Nottingham) 0115 924 9924

  4. Dancing Eye Syndrome Members have been collaborating with Mike Pike in this MREC approved clinical audit, follow-up and laboratory study.
    Contact Mike Pike (Oxford) 01865 220649

  5. Guillain Barre Syndrome A web based, evidence linked, draft guideline and audit data sheets are accessible to members in the Clinical Toolbox, thanks to Deirdre Peake (Birmingham). Richard Appleton has been collaborating with Alder Hey Children's Hospital nurses on a detailed integrated care pathway, which is currently being piloted in Alder Hey, Liverpool.
    Contact Richard Appleton (Liverpool) 0151 252 5851

  6. 1st Clinic Attendance with Suspected Epilepsy A revised data collection sheet is available in the Clinical Toolbox at www.bpna.org.uk. Thanks to Colin Dunkley. Please try and inspire your SpRs, SHOs and or CNSs to use it and audit the service to your population.
    Contact William Whitehouse (Nottingham) 0115 924 9924 ext 44476

  7. Idiopathic (benign) Intracranial Hypertension A draft data sheet is available in the Clinical Toolbox.
    Contact Cathy White (Swansea) 01792 702222

  8. Steroids in Epilepsy A small working group are developing a tool for this. More news soon we hope.
    Contact Colin Ferrie (Leeds) 0113 392 2188

  9. Waiting Times for EEG A simple data collection sheet is available in the Clinical Toolbox at www.bpna.org.uk. So far data from 2 centres has been collected and sent in. Please get your team to audit 4 weeks and submit the data by post. All returns received by the next open Audit Meeting at the next BPNA meeting will be entered in a Grand Prize Draw, for a bottle of bubbly!
    Contact William Whitehouse (Nottingham) 0115 924 9924 ext 44476

  10. Waiting Times for MRI A simple data collection sheet is available in the Clinical Toolbox at www.bpna.org.uk. So far no data has been collected and sent in. Please get your team to audit 4 weeks and submit the data by post. All returns received by the next open Audit Meeting at the next BPNA meeting will be entered in a Grand Prize Draw, for another bottle of bubbly!
    Contact William Whitehouse (Nottingham) 0115 924 9924 ext 44476

  11. Other topics at various stages of development include Headache and headache clinics; One year follow-up after 1st clinic attendance with suspected epilepsy; Refractory status epilepticus; Nutritional and biochemical effects of ketogenic diets.

  12. Emergent Guidelines A draft evidence-based guideline on Stroke in Children, (led by Vijaya Ganesan, London) for the Royal College of Physicians is in the pipeline, as are two Epilepsy Management evidence based guidelines, one by SIGN (led by Martin Kirkpatrick, Dundee), and one by NICE (with help from Helen Cross, London). Guidance on Acute Encephalopathy is also being developed (thanks to Fenella Kirkham, London & Southampton, and Richard Bowker, Nottingham, especially). Also the RCPCH is developing an evidence based guideline for CFS/ME (with paediatric neurology input from William Whitehouse).

  13. Future Plans For the moment at least, I have been asked to be a joint Governance & Audit lead. Plans, priorities and resources will be discussed at the next meeting of Council. More news on this and the shape of things to come next time.

For information on current audit projects and any other ideas please get in touch.

Contact William Whitehouse (Nottingham) 0115 9249924 ext 44476 or william.whitehouse@nottingham.ac.uk