{
  "abstract": "Background and Aims Peripheral nerve blocks are a cornerstone of modern anaesthesia, offering superior perioperative analgesia. However, once patients leave the hospital, the window for clinical review closes. Post-discharge follow-up is often inconsistent, limiting our ability to easily follow-up on our patients in a time-efficient manner. With the widespread implementation of the EPIC/Encompass electronic health record across our Trust, I found an an opportunity to modernise our follow-up processes and close this gap. My aim was to develop and implement a digital follow-up system using the EPIC/Encompass platform to monitor patients at home post peripheral nerve block. It will allow anaesthetisiologists to collect data on block offset times, pain trajectories, patient satisfaction, and complications, enabling the enhancement of care, audit outcomes, and contribute to long-term quality improvement.Methods Methodology included reviewing existing pathways in place in other trusts; which were limited. Creation of a patient questionnaire to assess block wear off as well as pain scores and patient satisfaction. This was then integrated into the patient care system (EPIC/Encompass) which automatically sends the questionnaire to the patients mobile telephone application for completion.Results Successful creation of a patient follow-up questionnaire with the system going live in July 2025 for use in the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, enabling us to detect nerve injury early and optimise patient care. The results of our pilot will aim to show early detection of nerve injury (if any) and also provide data on block wear-off, pain scores and patient satisfaction for audit.Conclusions Integrating patient follow-up for peripheral nerve blocks into the EPIC/Encompass platform is a feasible and innovative approach to improving patient care. It enables real-time data collection on block outcomes, enhances patient safety, and supports ongoing audit and quality improvement. This digital pathway bridges the gap between theatre and recovery at home—bringing follow-up into the 21st century.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Anaesthetics, Royal Victoria Hospital, NHS, Belfast, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Matthew Ferguson"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P166 Peripheral nerve block follow-up: an epic solution",
  "uid": "d60eb5c6-4acb-5f16-96f6-40b50e60d8da"
}