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I agree. I resent this sort of quasi social science in the department. Where do you draw the line? For example, I'd wager that there are far more A&E attendances because of smoking or poor diet than there are related to alcohol. Are we to monitor and collect data in these areas too? Mind you, if we had a field in Symphony for BMI, I'd bet that would be very interesting! I think we have a tough enough job cleaning up the mess society leaves behind without asking us to somehow assist in solving the root cause of these social problems. That's someone else's job if you ask me. And it seems to me that the Government have done a pretty poor job when it comes to alcohol, and diet, so why should I bother? And speaking of RT, I used to have massive rows with him on this very area. And you're right; that famous questionnaire is no doubt one of the reasons why his unit is renowned for being "doctor heavy" relative to the numbers of patients it sees. AF ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Ransom" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 10:41 PM Subject: Re: "alcohol related" > It depends what you want to do with this information. Just collecting it > on Symphony without any perceived use for it is pointless. We had a fairly > intensive 14 hour x 1 week blitz but i suspect even that did not capture > all our alcohol related presentations, which came in at around 7% > overall. I suspect is probably accuratish, unlike to 30 - 50% media > horror stats. > In Brighton we are having an alcohol worker start in the department soon, > who will function like our psychiatric liaison nurses, bridging the large > gap between the desire to abstain and community take-up. The problem is > getting the data on patients for them to follow up if not on the computer. > If anyone can think of an alternative to Robin Touquet's alcohol drill at > St. Mary's, getting the SHOs to ask the top ten alcohol- related > presentations, I would be glad to hear it, but I suspect there is none. > Paul Ransom > > > > Adrian Boyle wrote: >> It is actually worse than useless to try and collect data like this, >> since this will be manipulated in all sorts of ways. The best way is to >> use a proxy measure like assaults (most assaults are alcohol related) and >> this should be collected by your receptionists as part of the minimum >> data set. If you really want this to be effective use this with location >> of incident and share the data with the CDRP (aggregate and anonymous) >> Jonathon Shepherd in Cardiff showed in the EMJ how this could be used to >> target hotspots. We've being doing this in Cambridge for 18 months now >> and we've found 10% of all assaults treated at the ED are recorded by the >> police and we found a hotspot the police were unaware of. If you want a >> real laugh present the number of intoxicated under 16s from a specific >> nightclub to the manager (OK I'm a bit twisted!) >> >> Adrian >> >> On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:12:38 +0100 >> Rowley Cottingham <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>> We had this for a while, but it got removed along with a lot of other >>> non-core data that we were collecting so that we could concentrate on >>> entering essential computer data accurately. >>> >>> R >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Accident and Emergency Academic List >>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott, Charles >>> Sent: 26 March 2007 15:48 >>> To: [log in to unmask] >>> Subject: "alcohol related" >>> >>> >>> >>> My trust wishes to insert a compulsory computer record field "alcohol >>> related" as part of the medical diagnosis. This will have to be filled >>> in >>> by a doctor or ENP who are the only people permitted to make a diagnosis >>> on >>> our "Symphony" system. Do other departments do this and is there a >>> medically accepted definition of "alcohol related" which does not depend >>> on >>> a subjective impression of the staff. Is this another intrusion into >>> our >>> records and work by the State or a useful piece of social science? >>> How will the accident lawyers react? >>> >>> This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for >>> the >>> use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. The >>> information >>> contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure under the >>> Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally >>> exempt >>> from disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply >>> cannot be >>> guaranteed. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the author and >>> do >>> not represent the views of Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust >>> unless >>> otherwise explicitly stated. >>> >>> http://www.southportandormskirk.nhs.uk >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> This message has been scanned for viruses by BlackSpider MailControl - >> www.blackspider.com >>