Audit of Gastrointestinal Surgery in a District General Hospital Using dBase II

Abstract

A clinician will see and treat many patients with a variety of different diseases. To monitor these patients a record has to be kept of the numbers, the different diagnoses and treatments and the outcome of treatment. Such a breakdown or audit of clinical work, apart from being of importance for the individual clinician, has recently become increasingly important within the National Health Service where emphasis has been placed on assessing clinical efficiency. The collection, storage and audit of patient data is a continuing process. A single year’s work will generate many thousands of items of information. To store and later retrieve such large amounts of information can only be carried out efficiently by computer. Computer software was developed by one of the authors (JH) to monitor the work of a consultant general surgeon. This software has been operating for over 2 years and data from the gastrointestinal (GI) patients for the years 1985 and 1986 are presented in this chapter.