Paper anaesthesia charts. Illegible handwriting. Missing complication records. Your PSS assessor has seen it all before.
The RCVS Practice Standards Scheme requires documented surgical and anaesthesia records as part of the clinical governance module. Most practices still use paper anaesthesia monitoring charts — filled in by hand during surgery, often illegible, occasionally incomplete, and filed in a way that makes retrieval for audit purposes difficult. The 2025 PSS five-year review strengthened these requirements: practices must demonstrate clinical audit of surgical outcomes and maintain records that support governance review. Your agent digitises the entire surgical workflow: pre-operative assessment, anaesthetic protocol, intra-operative monitoring, surgical findings, complications, and recovery — all in structured format mapped to RCVS requirements.
What Your Agent Actually Does
Your agent captures structured surgical and anaesthesia records in real time — replacing paper charts with digital logs that meet RCVS clinical governance requirements.
Captures anaesthetic protocols digitally
Pre-medication, induction agents, maintenance, monitoring parameters (heart rate, SpO2, ETCO2, blood pressure, temperature) at timed intervals — recorded digitally as they happen rather than transcribed from paper after the procedure. Legible, complete, and structured for audit.
Records surgical findings and complications
Procedure performed, approach, intra-operative findings, complications encountered, tissues removed (for histopathology tracking), closure method, implants placed. All captured in a structured format that feeds into clinical audit and governance review.
Generates surgical audit data automatically
Complication rates, anaesthetic mortality, surgical site infection rates, procedure volumes by type — your agent aggregates surgical data for the clinical audits now required by the 2025 PSS review. Data that would take hours to extract manually is available on demand.
Links to patient record and follow-up
Surgical log entries link directly to the patient's clinical record, post-operative care instructions, and follow-up appointments. Discharge summaries reference the surgical record. Nothing falls through the gaps between theatre and consulting room.
Supports PSS inspection evidence
When the RCVS assessor asks for evidence of clinical governance in surgery, your agent produces it: surgical volumes, complication rates, significant event records, and evidence of audit-driven improvement. Not a folder of paper charts but a structured governance portfolio.
The real numbers.
| Vet/nurse time completing paper anaesthesia charts | £2,000–£4,000/year |
| Manual data extraction for surgical audits | £1,500–£3,000/year |
| Risk of incomplete records (complaints, RCVS investigation) | Variable (significant) |
| Realistic annual cost | £4,000–£8,000 |
| Agent build (one-off, configured to your surgical workflow) | £3,000–£5,000 |
| Monthly running costs (hosting + AI usage) | £100–£180/month |
| RCVS PSS requirement updates | Included in first year |
| Realistic first-year total | £4,200–£7,160 |
Paper anaesthesia charts were the standard for decades — but the 2025 PSS review now requires clinical audit of surgical outcomes, and you cannot audit what you cannot read or retrieve. Practices are expected to demonstrate governance over their surgical work, not just record that it happened.
Your agent turns surgical documentation from a paper-filing problem into a clinical governance asset.
Good fit / not a fit.
This works brilliantly for:
- Practices performing regular surgical procedures (neutering, dentals, soft tissue, orthopaedics)
- Practices still using paper anaesthesia monitoring charts
- Practices preparing for PSS accreditation or reassessment
- Multi-vet practices wanting consistent surgical documentation standards
This probably isn't for you if:
- You're a consultation-only or referral-only practice with minimal surgical work
- You already use a digital anaesthesia monitoring system you're happy with
- Your practice performs fewer than 5 surgical procedures per month
Let's talk.
We'll start with your surgical volume, how you currently record anaesthesia monitoring, and whether you have clinical audit data from your surgical work. Usually a 15-minute conversation.
hello@nimblecroft.com