Reducing prolonged fasting for abdominal ultrasound scans

Abstract

This project aimed to address the issue of patients experiencing prolonged fasting periods before undergoing abdominal ultrasound scans in a busy surgical service at our hospital. A review of in-patient data revealed that 78% of patients were not following the recommended 6 hours fast before the scan. This led to poor patient experiences, prolonged diagnosis and management, and increased costs due to rescheduling of scans. To address this problem, a series of plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles were implemented to test different interventions aimed at improving staff awareness and compliance with fasting guidelines. The first PDSA cycle involved displaying a poster with fasting instructions in the doctors and nursing offices. This was followed by increasing awareness of guidelines during meetings and presenting the findings at a teaching session. Each PDSA cycle was followed by data collection to assess the impact of the intervention. The project resulted in an improvement in patient experiences, with 88% of patients being appropriately fasted by the end of the project. The study highlights the importance of using PDSA cycles to test and refine interventions and the positive impact of simple interventions on patient outcomes and clinical workflow.