Data from: The Importance of a Medical Chaperone; a quality improvement study exploring the use of a note stamp in a tertiary breast surgery unit

Objectives: The project aim was to determine current use and documentation of medical chaperones within a major breast service unit. It explored ways of improving adherence to professional guidelines concerning chaperones. Setting: A single centre quality improvement project completed in a tertiary breast service unit in North West London. A three stage project; initial audit October 2013, 1st post-intervention cycle November 2013, 2nd post intervention cycle October 2014. Participants: In each study cycle data was collected from entries in clinic notes until at least 155 encounters with documented clinical examination were analysed. All notes were of female patients. Interventions: Interventions 1st cycle: Presentation and discussion of chaperone guidelines alongside reminder posters and introduction of note stamp. Intervention 2nd cycle: Note stamp alone. Primary and secondary outcome measures: documentation of chaperone offer, documentation of patient preference regarding chaperone, identifier (name or signature) of chaperone present, gender of examining clinician. Results: In the 1st post intervention cycle 69.95% documentation of chaperone offer was recorded, p<0.001; CI [59.04 to 80.76%]. This result was replicated in the 2nd post intervention cycle a year later with 74.86% documentation of chaperone offer recorded, p <0.001; CI [66.41 to 83.31%]. The 4.91% difference was insignificant; p = 0.294, CI [14.03 to 4.21%]. Conclusions: The authors would suggest that a proforma approach to medical chaperones is an effective means of ensuring adherence to best practice guidelines. A stamp, or similar, that can be embedded into documentation structure is an effective example of such an approach. Improved documentation allows any problems with adherence to guidelines to be more easily identified; helping to ensure the safeguarding of patients and staff involved in intimate examinations.