Serious traumatic brain injury audit tool for non-neuroscience centres
Support for people working in health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find information about how you can support yourselves and others, including consumers, teams and colleagues which complements and aligns with Ministry of Health resources.
The Choosing Wisely campaign seeks to reduce harm from unnecessary and low-value tests and treatment.
The tool on this page is designed to help non-neuroscience centres capture patient data relating to serious traumatic brain injury (sTBI) for audit.
An sTBI can result in life-changing impairments for patients and affect their quality of life, capacity to work, participation in meaningful activities and relationships with others.
Current evidence suggests a reduction in mortality for sTBI patients admitted to a neuroscience centre independent of a need for neurosurgical intervention. These patients benefit from the breadth and depth of specialist medical, nursing and allied health care found within these centres.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, approximately half of sTBI patients are initially admitted to non-neuroscience centres. There is no national consensus on which patients should then be transported to specialist neuroscience centres, but data suggests there is significant regional variation in both access and outcome.
The purpose of this audit is to identify those patients who fit the criteria for sTBI and who are not transported to a neuroscience centre for ongoing care, examine the factors contributing to this decision and the outcome for these patients.
We will use the data to produce quarterly reports on the management of sTBI patients in Aotearoa New Zealand and investigate where opportunities for ongoing quality improvement work exist to reduce variation in care.
Data uploaded through this online audit tool (form) is accessible only to those with administrator login access to the website (Health Quality & Safety Commission staff) and to selected Commission staff working directly on this project.
This audit has been assessed via the Health and Disability Ethics Committee (HDEC) screening tool as out of scope for HDEC review as per the Standard Operating Procedures for Health and Disability Ethics Committees (February 2023).