Audit of audit consultation service

Funding sources for quality improvement, clinical audit and clinical effectiveness programmes increasingly need assurance that local audit and quality improvement programmes are efficient and are actually resulting in improvements in the quality of care delivered to patients and clients.

Our consultation gives an accountable officer an independent appraisal of the technical quality of locally-executed clinical audits. The process provides insights about how clinical audit and quality improvement are managed at a local level and advises on how things might be improved.

Who the consultation service is for
The consultation service is primarily intended for funders or accountable officers for clinical audit programmes who need to oversee and monitor clinical audit, clinical effectiveness and quality improvement programmes but don't have the time to study intensively their impact. The service is also useful for managers who are responsible for oversight for these activities.

Also, individual clinical audit or quality departments can use this consultancy service to obtain independent feedback on their work to improve the strategic and operational performance of the department.

We are available to carry out the Audit of Clinical Audit on a local level at a time most convenient to the organization involved. We work at the local organization's site to collect information.

What's included
We provide a detailed report of our findings and recommendations for improvement of the value of these activities in the healthcare organizations concerned. Please contact us for information regarding costs.

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Consultation on the design, supervision or carrying out of clinical audit

We carry out independent audits of aspects of clinical practice. We take on the support of such clinical audits when the work involved exceeds the capacity of the organization's own staff or the subject of the audit is sensitive.

We work directly with clinical staff in a collaborative approach to design audits and outcome studies of clinical practice. Then, we carry out the data collection, analysis and presentation of findings directly or supervise the organization's staff in the collection, analysis and presentation of the audit findings.

Examples of the audits we have designed, carried out directly and/or supervised include the following:

• The appropriateness of admissions to a specialist children's hospital
• The effectiveness of discharge planning across all clinical services in a large general hospital
• The appropriateness of emergency care of patients with asthma
• The effectiveness of diagnosing and managing obesity in primary care settings

In other projects, we have carried out reviews of clinical literature and worked with over 100 clinicians in different organizations and specialties to measure clinical outcomes.

What's included
We provide this service in accordance with specifications agreed with the organizations involved. Please contact us for information regarding costs.

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