OBJECTIVE To explore and describe the implementation of the Royal College of Nursing's approach to audit--the dynamic standard setting system--within the current context of health care, in particular to focus on how the system has developed since its inception in the 1980s as a method for uniprofessional and multiprofessional audit. DESIGN Qualitative design with semistructure interviews and ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether clinical audit improved the performance of diabetic clinical processes in the health district in which it was implemented. DESIGN Patient folders were systematically sampled annually for review. SETTING Primary health-care facilities in the Metro health district of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. PARTICIPANTS Health-care workers involved in diabet...

BACKGROUND Large datasets of the audit log of modern physiologic monitoring devices have rarely been used for predictive modeling, capturing unsafe practices, or guiding initiatives on alarm systems safety. OBJECTIVE This paper (1) describes a large clinical dataset using the audit log of the physiologic monitors, (2) discusses benefits and challenges of using the audit log in identifying the...

BACKGROUND There are two dimensions of quality of maternity care, namely quality of health outcomes and quality as perceived by clients. The feasibility of using clinical audit to assess and improve the quality of maternity care as perceived by women was studied in Malawi. OBJECTIVE We sought to (a) establish standards for women friendly care and (b) explore attitudinal barriers which could i...

BACKGROUND The mental health needs of young people are often inadequately met by health services. Quality improvement approaches provide a framework for measuring, assessing and improving the quality of healthcare. However, a lack of performance standards and measurement tools are an impediment to their implementation. This paper reports on the initial stages of development of a clinical audit ...

o bjectives: cases of antimicrobial resistance are increasing, partly due to inappropriate prescribing practices by dentists. the purpose of this study was to investigate the prescrib- ing practices and knowledge of dentists with regards to antibiotics. moreover, this study aimed to determine whether the prescriptions comply with the recommended guidelines and whether clinical audit can alter t...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the present study is to explore the stability of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in a clinical setting by comparing prescreening heavy drinking questions and AUDIT scores over time. Because instrument stability is equal to test-retest reliability at worst, investigating the stability of the AUDIT would help better understand patient behavior change...

1 Saunders DI, Murray D, Pichel AC, Varley S, Peden CJ, on behalf of the members of the UK Emergency Laparotomy Network. Variations in mortality after emergency laparotomy: the first report of the UK Emergency Laparotomy Network. Br J Anaesth 2012; 109: 368–75 2 Surgical risk for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th...

Clinical audits are an essential part of the cycle designed to ensure that patients receive the best quality of care. By measuring the care delivered against established best practice standards, it becomes possible to identify shortcomings and to plan targeted strategies and processes for continuous improvement. The success of a clinical audit depends upon defined goals, motivation of stakehold...