The National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) is pleased to announce that Bon Secours Hospital Tralee (BSHT) has become the 12th hospital in Ireland to roll out the Irish National Orthopaedic Register (INOR) and the first hospital within the Bon Secours Hospital Group. The aim of this initiative is to monitor and improve the quality of care for individuals receiving joint replacement surgery in Ireland.
INOR is a secure, web-based, real-time system which provides a national electronic register of patients receiving joint replacement surgery in Ireland. Elective orthopaedic hip and knee replacement records will now be available nationally in a central register for the first time. The register will collate information from BSHT and will support early detection of implant performance and improve the efficiency of the recall and review process.
Ms Eimear Conroy, Clinical Lead for the INOR Project in BSHT said: “Involvement and inclusion in INOR enables Irish Surgeons to improve patient safety and enhance clinical decision-making. It will facilitate value based health-care delivery and provide up-to-date guidance for public health. Thanks to all the staff both in Bon Secours Tralee and INOR who have worked tirelessly to bring the service to the Bon Secours Group.”
Following patient consent, the INOR will collect information electronically at pre-operative, surgical and post-operative assessment stages, from patients who are undergoing joint replacement surgery. This will in turn support early detection of implant performance and improve patient experience with their implant over a longer time.
Mr. Paddy Kenny, Joint National Clinical Lead for INOR welcomed the introduction of INOR to Bon Secours Hospital Tralee. He highlighted the “important contribution INOR makes to good clinical governance and ensures monitoring of safe surgical practice. INOR also allows us to expedite notifying patients in the unlikely event of an implant recall occurring.”
Over the past four months, much work was undertaken by the local BSHT implementation team for INOR in conjunction with the INOR national team to ensure implementation readiness across all relevant areas of Bon Secours Hospital Tralee.
T.J. O’ Connor, General Manager of Bon Secours Hospital Tralee welcomed the implementation, saying “We are delighted to be the first Bon Secours Hospital to roll out the Irish National Orthopaedic Register. We are confident participation in INOR will ensure a high standard of care for patients undergoing joint replacement surgery in BSHT. INOR will be hugely beneficial to staff and patients as it will provide an electronic system of data collection leading to greater efficiencies and improvements in the quality of patient care we provide. I would also like to acknowledge all staff for their hard work and dedication to this project and for bringing it to fruition.”
INOR went live in May 2016 and is managed by NOCA, in conjunction with the HSE Office of the Chief Information Officer and clinically supported by Irish Institute of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon (IITOS). Roll-out of INOR to the remaining public elective orthopaedic surgery sites is underway and will be completed by early 2023. Implementations of the private hospital are also under way.
