BACKGROUND Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major health and financial burden. VTE impacts health outcomes in surgical and non-surgical patients. VTE prophylaxis is underutilized, particularly amongst high risk medical patients. We conducted a multicentre clinical audit to determine the extent to which appropriate VTE prophylaxis in acutely ill hospitalized medical patients could be improved v...

OBJECTIVE To determine general practitioners' attitudes to medical audit and to establish what initiatives are already being undertaken; to define future ideas for audit and perceived difficulties in implementing audit in primary care. DESIGN Analysis of responses to a self administered postal questionnaire. SETTING Urban conurbation with a population of about 750,000. PARTICIPANTS 386 ge...

AIM To set up a programme of internal laboratory audit in a medical microbiology laboratory. METHODS A model of laboratory based process audit is described. Laboratory activities were examined in turn by specimen type. Standards were set using laboratory standard operating procedures; practice was observed using a purpose designed questionnaire and the data were analysed by computer; performa...

Methods Setting: A quantitative retrospective audit was carried out over 4 months. The medical charts and dietetic record cards of patients with raised blood glucose levels (defined as ≥8mmol/L) who were receiving enteral nutrition in Beaumont Hospital were collected by the department of Nutrition and Dietetics during the months of May to August. Patients: Medical charts and dietetic record car...

BACKGROUND 1996 will see the introduction of summative assessment of general practitioner registrars (trainees). One part of this assessment is the written submission of practical work. In the west of Scotland, audit projects have been chosen as the format for practical work. A valid and reliable marking schedule for such projects is needed. AIM A study was undertaken to develop a criterion-r...