A pilot of clinical performance indicators for suspected childhood epilepsies

Area of Science:

• Paediatric Neurology
• Quality Improvement in Healthcare
• Epilepsy Management

Background:

• Concerns persist regarding the quality and equity of care for children and young people with epilepsy.
• The British Paediatric Neurology Association (BPNA) advocates for practical audits to enhance care quality.
• Standardized metrics are crucial for assessing and improving paediatric epilepsy services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a multi-service audit of paediatric epilepsy care in the Trent region.
• To assess care quality against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines.
• To pilot a model for future national paediatric epilepsy audits and support local quality improvement.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective multi-service audit of paediatric epilepsy care was coordinated by the Children's Epilepsy Workstream in Trent (CEWT) in 2006.
• Data were collected using both prospective and retrospective ascertainment methods across four hospital services.
• Twelve performance indicators were applied to evaluate care against established guidelines.

Main Results:

• The audit included 22 children with epilepsy across four hospital services.
• Only 54% (12/22) of children had input from a paediatrician with "expertise" in epilepsy.
• Just 23% (5/22) of children received input from an epilepsy specialist nurse.

Conclusions:

• Audits can establish standardized quality metrics for paediatric epilepsy care, aligned with national recommendations.
• Audit data can support local quality improvement initiatives and provide regional/national perspectives.
• This audit served as a precursor to the larger Epilepsy 12 UK multicentre audit (2009-2012).