Executive Summary
Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award
Dr Michael Symes receives inaugural Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award On behalf of the RNSH Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Dr Michael Symes was named a recipient of the inaugural Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award in February, 2022. The award is named after Dr Ray Hollings who was a General Surgeon at RNSH for more than 60 years and was passionate about providing high quality patient care and supporting innovation and quality improvement activity across surgery. The RNSH Surgical Education Research & Training (SERT) Institute was proud to facilitate the inaugural Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award, in recognition of the contribution Dr Hollings has made to surgery across Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD). The Award is to encourage and support consultant surgeons at RNSH to undertake quality improvement projects that drive innovation, and improve service delivery and patient care. The quality improvement project application submitted by Dr Michael Symes on behalf of the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery was to continue the next phase of the SORTED. The database, which was established in 2020 with the help of the Data Analysis & Surgical Outcomes (DASO) Unit, has been successful in achieving its initial goals of improving patient care, driving research and creating a culture of empowerment and engagement for the multidisciplinary teams involved in orthopaedic trauma patient care. Key outcomes of the next stage of SORTED include transitioning and incorporating patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). To facilitate this, the award funds will be used to purchase iPads to collect PROMs data directly from patients.
This report provides an overview of the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) Spine and Orthopaedic Trauma Epidemiological Database (SORTED) for 2021. Since commencing in February 2020, SORTED has had a considerable impact on improving the culture of research and use of data to drive improvements in patient outcomes within the RNSH Orthopaedic and Trauma departments. Data integrity is highly valued in our department and over the past 12 months we have seen a significant improvement in data accuracy and completeness. Compared to last year’s annual report which reported 7.0% missing or incorrectly entered data, the figure dropped to just 0.4% in 2021. During the reporting period from 1 January to 31 December 2021, a total of 2049 operations were entered into the database. Of these, 1780 were general orthopaedic cases (performed by 11 surgeons), and 269 were spine surgeries (performed by four surgeons). Two operations were entered as combined single-stage orthopaedic and spine surgeries. A highlight for the department was that SORTED received the Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award, providing a major boost for the project. The award will be used to roll out the next phase of SORTED, which will involve collecting data on patient reported outcome measures (PROMs).
• Establishing a six-month development and training period until a testing and trial period is ready mid-next year (including information on key steps, timeframes and project stakeholders).
The combination of PROMs and complication data will not only be valuable for research and publications, but ultimately in improving the quality of care for patients. Speaking at the Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award and Harry Cumberland Travelling Scholarship awards night, Dr Symes explained how the funds from the award would enable the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery to continue the momentum of SORTED. “It’s going to accelerate the next phase of SORTED which involves the collection of PROMs, help us collect more in-depth complication data, as well as increase collaborative engagement across departments at RNSH such as Trauma and Burns and Plastics,” he said. “This award will also help us work towards our goal of expanding SORTED across the Northern Sydney Local Health District in the next five to ten years.” The Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award will be awarded each year by the SERT Institute, giving recipients the opportunity to receive up to $10,000 towards a quality improvement project at RNSH.
The next stage of SORTED will focus on:
• Collecting more detailed complications data and collaborating with other departments including Trauma, Burns, and Plastics to improve patient outcomes. • Training for junior medical doctors, nurses, allied health and non-medical staff to ensure high quality data capture across multiple points of care including in wards, clinics and operating rooms.
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SORTED Annual Report 2021
SORTED Annual Report 2021
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