Anaesthetists' records of pre-operative assessment

The pre-operative anaesthetic records of 195 patients were analysed for the presence of 12 agreed core items of pre-operative assessment. This study showed that anaesthetists recorded 26.8 per cent of this information. In up to one-third of patients the following were recorded: smoking history, family history, gastro-oesophageal reflux, airway assessment, dental assessment, chest examination, heart-sounds and blood pressure. Previous anaesthesia, drug history and allergies were recorded in one to two-thirds of patients. Past medical history was recorded in over two-thirds of patients. With a view to improving the level of record-keeping, a formatted, pre-printed pre-operative assessment record was introduced into practice and two months later the audit was repeated. A small but non-significant improvement in record keeping was observed. An argument is made for the introduction of an interdisciplinary, unified anaesthetic pre-operative record.