Improving the accessibility of trust guidelines for junior doctors at North Bristol NHS Trust

Medicine is becoming increasingly protocol driven. This provides a standardised format for doctors to deliver best practice, especially in the acute setting. 40 junior doctors were asked to locate three Trust guidelines: venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis; antibiotic prescribing; and management of upper gastrointestinal bleed (UGIB). For each doctor the time taken and number of mouse clicks to access each guideline was recorded. Following successful redesign of the Trust intranet we completed a re-audit. Initial results showed 48% of doctors were unable to locate the UGIB or the VTE guidelines within 5 min. For those who were able to locate the guidelines it took an average of 111 sec and 17 mouse clicks. 100% of doctors were able to locate the antibiotic guidelines in 12 sec and with two clicks. These are accessible via a single port of access. Following our redesign of the Trust intranet 100% of doctors located all three guidelines in an average time of 7.2 sec and in 2.1 clicks. Improvement in access to VTE prophylaxis and UGIB was statistically significant (p=0.001). Redesigning our Trust intranet homepage has significantly improved the accessibility of acute surgical and medical guidelines.