Welsh Nursing Care Record supporting clinicians with auditing

10 April 2026

Earlier this year, teams across Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) participated in the National Cardiac Arrest Audit, which helps hospitals learn from cardiac arrest cases and compare outcomes with others across the UK.

Before the Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR), every cardiac arrest call meant tracking, collecting and physically reviewing case notes by hand. Whether a patient survived or not meant one of the requirements for the audit is discharge information,  historically this was often not available at the time of the first review – which meant returning to the notes later, only to find they had often been moved or in some cases, staff had to travel to other hospital sites to complete the audit.

WNCR has changed this process significantly. Teams can now quickly check whether a cardiac arrest meets the criteria for inclusion in the audit without first finding the paper notes. Discharge details can also be viewed digitally, so there is no need to pull the notes again once a patient has left hospital.

Some cases still require a full review of physical notes, but WNCR has made the initial “sorting” stage much faster and far less labour intensive.

Gareth Benson, Resuscitation Officer at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, has seen the difference WNCR has made first hand. He said: “WNCR has made a huge difference to how we carry out the cardiac arrest audit. It lets us quickly rule cases in or out and check discharge details without chasing paper notes. That saves a lot of time and means we can focus our effort where it’s really needed.”

The impact is already clear. In one recent example, five cardiac arrest calls were reviewed in a single morning using WNCR. Three were quickly ruled out as not meeting the audit criteria, and discharge details were confirmed for a survivor, allowing their report to be closed. As a result, only two sets of physical notes needed to be tracked down instead of six which is a 66% increase in productivity.

Gareth added: “WNCR has had a very positive impact on how this audit is carried out by reducing unnecessary manual work and making key information easier to access, it is helping teams work more efficiently while continuing to support safe, high quality patient care.”