Learning objectives

  Audit is an obligatory activity in which all healthcare professionals must play a role.

  Audit can and will provide useful data about the outcome of clinical activity and will fulfill the requirements of ensuring that quality care is provided.

  Medical audit and resource management activities are inseparable.

  For audit to be undertaken properly and efficiently the acquisition of data must be part of normal everyday medical record keeping and must make full use of information technology as it becomes available.

The recent emphasis on quality of medical care (not just quantity) has made the importance of collecting good quality audit data more important than ever before.

Audit and the methods used to undertake audit allow us to gather simply information about our surgical activity. It allows us to look at what happens to our patients (outcomes) and it allows us to improve practice (completing the audit loop). A simple audit of the outcome of an operation can pick up variations from the expected at an early stage. This should reduce future damage to patients and any legal prob­lems that might accompany disasters.

The features of a ‘simple’ audit

Define the type of audit (e.g. case record review)

Identify a representative sample (random selection or consecutive cases)

Define the questions to be answered

Define the criteria for assessment

Establish the standards for comparison

Perform the audit

Record the results

Re-audit at a defined time in the future