The effect of teaching on the completeness of the anesthesia record charts for obstetric subarachnoid blocks in a low resource area hospital

Background: Spinal anesthesia is a widely practiced anesthetic technique for cesarean delivery. Record charting and keeping during obstetric spinal anesthesia demand accuracy and completeness for patient′s safety, medico-legal and research purposes. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of teaching on improving audit of the anesthetic record charts for spinal anesthesia in obstetrics. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 100 anesthetic charts for spinal anesthesia in the obstetric theatre of our hospital. This was followed by a lecture given by a consultant anesthetist on the importance of the anesthesia record keeping with emphasis on obstetric spinal anesthesia. Immediately after the lecture, post teaching intervention audit of 400 anesthetic charts for obstetric spinal anesthesia in four consecutive periods of 100 charts each were done. Data collected were analyzed with SPSS version 16.0. Results: A total of 500 anesthetic record charts were studied. Average percentage completion of anesthetic charts before the lecture (pre-intervention); first, second, third and fourth audit (post-intervention) were 56.1%, 70.1%, 78.1%, 81.3% and 87.7%, respectively. The level of improvement in the filling of the charts pre- and post-teaching intervention in the elective cases (54.72 vs. 83.69) and emergency cases (48.67 vs. 82.27) were statistically significant respectively (P < 0.05). Conclusion: There was a significant improvement in the adequacy of documentation of anesthetic record chart for obstetric spinal anesthesia after a teaching intervention.