Implementation of a multicomponent intervention to optimise patient safety through improved oxygen prescription in a rural hospital.

Objective: To rationalise oxygen procedures in adult medical and surgical inpatients with a view to improving patient safety.

Design: Prospective pre- and post-intervention audit.

Setting: Manning Hospital, a rural referral hospital in Taree NSW.

Participants: Pre-intervention: 82 patients aged 72.7 ± 14.7 years. Post-intervention: 77 patients aged 73.6 ± 12.4 years.

Intervention: A multicomponent intervention composed of implementation of a local hospital oxygen policy, introduction of a specific oxygen prescription chart and targeted staff education.

Main Outcome Measures: Satisfactory oxygen prescription, monitoring and titration.

Results: Only 2/82 (2.4%) patients had satisfactory oxygen prescription specifying target saturation, device and initial flow rate before the intervention compared with 26/77 (34%) patients post-intervention (χ(2)  = 56.88, df = 5, P < 0.0001). Percentage of patients with conditions predisposing to hypercapnic respiratory failure who were overtreated with oxygen dropped from 9/19 (47%) to 4/22 (18%) following the study intervention (χ(2)  = 4.011, df = 1, P = 0.04). Oxygen therapy monitoring was satisfactory during the audit period, but oxygen titration was unsatisfactory and did not significantly improve following the intervention.

Conclusions: A multicomponent intervention can achieve a significantly increased rate of satisfactory oxygen prescriptions specifying target saturation, including in those who are at risk of hypercapnic respiratory failure.