Audit

Te Tāhū Hauora has developed an audit tool to investigate cases where patients with sTBI are not transferred to a neuroscience centre within the recommended 24 hours. The audit is being launched alongside the action plan and care pathway, and this section will be updated once the outcomes from the audit are known.

The audit tool can be found here.

2024 summary:

The greatest contributing factor resulting in deviation from the acute sTBI pathways for 2024 was the diagnosis of a non-survivable TBI where it was felt to be more appropriate to remain in the non-neuroscience centre for palliation. 
Other reasons for pathway deviation include lack of an ICU bed at the receiving neuroscience centre, weather conditions affecting air transport and the neurosurgical service declining to accept a patient based on additional clinical criteria. 
The length of stay at the non-neuroscience centre for these patients ranged from <1 day through to 3 days.  
 
As we had less than 10 audit responses for 2024, we are unable to provide information at a hospital or regional level to preserve patient confidentiality. 
 
We will continue to monitor non-adherence to the acute TBI pathways in 2025 and investigate ways to improve and strengthen systems across Aotearoa.

Serious traumatic brain injury audit tool