ACUTE APPENDICITIS, A QUALITY OF CARE STUDY IN BASRAH GENERAL HOSPITAL

Abstract

This study is designed to evaluate the parameters that indicate the quality of care in acute appendicitis. It is a prospective study in Basrah General Hospital. One hundred ten patients underwent appendectomy in the period between March and July 2010, were studied according to a data collection sheet. The mean duration of symptoms was 29.2 hours and 10% of patients visited the hospital twice. Decision to operate depending on clinical diagnosis alone done in 14.54% of patients while blood cell count was the most frequent investigation done in 78.18% of the patients. The mean waiting period was 6.6 hours. All patients received antibiotics postoperatively while antibiotic prophylaxis used in 74.5%. Rate of perforation of appendix was 12.7%. Histopathological examination of the removed appendix done in 7.27%. The mean hospital stay was 44.02 hours with 20% of patients developed post operative complications. Most of our patients were satisfied with hospital services, facilities and staff behavior. In conclusion, non-utilization of investigations in some patients, long waiting period, high complication rate and extended usage of antibiotics are aspects among others which need to deal with by conducting hospital audits.