Home >  Fellows >  CPD Recertification > CPD resources and tools

Print

CPD resources and tools

David Watters Surgical Audit Tool

David Watters has developed a Surgical Audit Tool for the use of RACS Fellows and Trainees. There are two versions available.

• Stand Alone System - this version does not require you to have any special software installed on your computer, you will just need to follow the directions to download and unzip the files.

  A guide to using the Stand Alone System (224 Kb) is also available to download.

• FileMaker Pro version - this version is for those people that already have FileMaker Pro 5, 5.5 or 6 installed on their computer. These people will just need to download the files provided.

  Some hints on using the Surgical Audit in Filemaker Pro are provided.

The programs you are downloading are free. If you publish a paper using them to collect data David Watters would be grateful if you would acknowledge that they were used and send him a copy of the paper by email.

Stand alone system - developed in FileMaker Pro.

The following is a stand-alone system developed in FileMaker Pro, which may be useful particularly for rural and isolated surgeons who wish to develop their own audit. This is available to download from this site. If you have any technical issues relating to this software, please contact Prof David Watters on davidw@barwonhealth.org.au who has kindly offered this programme to RACS Fellows and Trainees.

Stand-Alone System (2.63 Mb) - This file has been saved as a .zip file.

• Click on the link above
• Choose "Save"
• After it has saved, choose "Open" - you will need to use WinZip or a similar program to open the file
• Click "Extract"
• Tell it where to extract to (make a note of the destination), make sure "All files" is selected and then click the "Extract" button on the right (if using WinZip)
• Once the extraction process is complete, close WinZip
• Using Windows Explorer, find the folder (it should be wherever you extracted it to!) called "Download Surg Audit Solution Folder", double click this folder
• Double click on "Download Surg Audit Solution.EXE"
• Leave the password box blank, just click "OK", and then "OK" the dictionary message too
• You should be ready to go!
• Value Lists (Drop Down Menus) can be customised by using Edit for standalone version
• Some information on how to use this Surgical Audit Tool may be found in this pdf file Instructions for using Stand-Alone System (224 Kb)

Download a free evaluation version of WinZip          

Surgical Audit Using Filemaker Pro 5, 5.5 or 6
(The files below require you to own a copy of the software Filemaker Pro)

Which files do I need to download?

Files 1-3 will need to be downloaded by everybody.
Files 4 and 5 are for Trainees,
File 6 is for surgeons who want to use the audit for breast work,
Files 7 and 8 are for surgeons wanting to audit colorectal work and
Files 9 and 10 for auditing trauma work.

To download a file, right-click on the link, and choose "Save Target As", then choose where you wish to save it to on your pc.

1. David's download audit (1 Mb)
   This is where you enter patient information
2. Contacts (23 Kb)
   Enter details of referring doctors in this file
3. Personnel (67 Kb)
   Your details need to be entered into this file in order to have your details and your logo automatically entered into your audit documents and printouts
   
   
4. Trainee operation log (938 Kb)
5. Operation log reference (12 Kb)
   
   
6. Breast Audit (1 Mb)
   A clinical information system for breast patients which also provides layouts with the RACS Breast Section Audit data fields which can be printed and sent or the specific fields exported to another database.
   
   
7. Colorectal Audit (2 Mb)
   A one page sheet to evaluate quality and outcome of colorectal surgery as used at the Geelong Hospital
8. Possum Colorectal (421 Kb)
   Possum scoring for General surgeons and colorectal surgeons for those who wish the computer to calculate the Possum scores.
   
   
9. Trauma Audit (312 Kb)
   A multidisciplinary trauma audit for a regional hospital as used at the Geelong Hospital
10. Trauma Autoscore (59 Kb)
    Calculate injury severity, revised trauma and paediatric trauma scores for trauma audit

Hints on Filemaker

You do not need to save filemaker files. They save automatically - only use "save as" when making a backup file. You will need to create a New Record by clicking on NEW or choosing new record from the record menu. Should be compatible will all previous filemaker versions (eg 2,3 and 4).

DOUBLE CLICK ON THE FILEMAKER ICON to open the file
No password is necessary when you want to enter data - just click OK
The password is only necessary to alter the layouts.

You will need to enter some patients to see how it functions.

First create a new record

You can mouse click or tab (the tab order suits me so may not suit you or your secretary) to move through the fields

If you select something from a popup menu and cannot change it either use the edit facility in the drop down list. If you only want to put something in as a one-off rather than a regular entry appropriate for permanently being in your drop down menu use the "other" facility.

Value Lists (Drop Down Menus)can be customised by using using Define Value Lists in the File Menu.

Right click on a field to cut or delete information entered in error by a pop up menu with no other or edit facility.

For those with a related contacts database: (see type 2 and way of obtaining 2 or 3 below) You will need to insert your own GP's and contacts in the Contacts database for the Cotnacts database to work (will insert addresses from database).

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF FILEMAKER FILE PROVIDED

1. A Version which is called a run-time, stand-alone solution, which does not require you to have Filemaker Pro installed on your computer.

2. A version which requires Filemaker Pro to be installed but which with the password will enable you to change the layouts and appearance and add or remove fields. Filemaker users will prefer this version.

You can obtain this file in one of three ways.

1. DOWNLOAD THE FILE FROM THE COLLEGE WEBSITE
   This is the Surgical audit programme that I have developed in PNG and Geelong. Currently what you can download is a run-time, a stand-alone version which does not require you to have the program, Filemaker Pro, installed on your PC or laptop.

2. COPY THE FILE FROM THE CD TO YOUR COMPUTER
   (The CD is obtained from the SSRS Audit project or from CPD or direct from David Watters)
   The CD version will have either a run-time stand alone version (Filemaker not required) and/or a Filemaker Pro file which requires you to have Filemaker Pro installed.
   The CD version opens as a read only file click on the properties on the file in Windows Explorer and put the read-only part off. Click on Archive or nothing.
   (Alternatively copy to your desktop and right click on the Folder: then choose properties and click off Read Only and click on (tick) Archive.

3. EMAIL ATTACHMENT OF THE FILEMAKER PRO FILE
   Requires Filemkaer Pro to be installed on your computer.
   There are four possible levels of audits available - all are free:
   

   1. One which is a single flat file - Audit Data Entry, Discharge Summary and Adverse Events
   2. Another which has a contacts and personnel related databases - also allows multiple consultants to insert their personal details and to address to referring GP's and other contacts
   3. Operation note related databases allowing you to do operation notes and trainee logs.
   4. Specialty Databases: Colorectal, Breast Section and Sentinel Node biopsy (in Filemaker Pro format), Trauma Audits (These have to be zipped or sent on a CD).

David Watters' Surgical Audit programs are regularly modified according to feedback from users. Many users have obtained the password and modified the layouts to suit their own needs. To get the password after some trial use please email davidw@barwonhealth.org.au

TRAINEE LOGS

Trainee operation Log will work and will look up RACS trainee operation log classifications. There are different layouts for you to work through and a relational databases to 1 GP's, 2 Operations 3 Trainee Log classifications. Once you have a few operations in you can summarise them using the operation summary function in DAKW Surgical Audit. This is not in this version of the related operations file (to allow patients to have multiple operations in the same admission). I hope this is clear. Phone me on 0418316552 if any problems.

David A K Watters