Message delivered? Implementing a text-message based system to improve obstetric anaesthetic follow-up in a teaching hospital

All patients who received an anaesthetic intervention for labour and/or delivery should be reviewed postnatally. Traditional face-to-face follow-up faces a number of challenges summarised in Figure 1.  In an effort to mitigate these issues, we introduced a text message-based follow-up model for selected cases via the platform AccuRx. We audited & re-audited this in May & October 2024. This has shown improvement in reach and efficiency of follow-up, while maintaining patient safety in our unit, and has potential to be applied to other units.