Synopsis 

Infants undergoing cleft palate surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital are a unique subgroup. In 2015 Dr Bal Kaur conducted a retrospective audit of pain management of these infants and found substantially high pain and distress reported post operatively. Through a collaborative effort with Dr Geoff Frawley and other stakeholders, a formal quality improvement project commenced. The results of this 6-year study will be presented which has demonstrated improved pain scores, parental satisfaction, length of stay in recovery and hospital, and importantly a better management of these patients through awareness and education. Initiatives in quality improvement like this is an example of how small changes can result in a big impact on the quality of our patient care. 

Speakers 

Dr Balvindar (Bal) Kaur is a senior staff anaesthetist, research associate at the MCRI, and lecturer at the Dept of Critical Care, University of Melbourne. Her clinical interests include anaesthesia for craniofacial and difficult airway surgery. She is the current fellows program lead, former chair of the SPANZA education subcommittee and lead the development of guidelines for paediatric anaesthesia fellowships in Australia and New Zealand. 

Associate Professor Geoff Frawley is a senior Paediatric Anaesthetist with over 30 years’ experience in managing small complex children. His research focus has been on improving quality and safety of paediatric anaesthesia. In addition to extensive research in local anaesthesia for infants and children there has been an ongoing interest in anaesthetic techniques for children with craniofacial anomalies.