Audit, Service Evaluation & Research

Question 1

What is clinical audit?

Answer 1

“Clinical audit is a continuous cycle of quality improvement that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care (including procedures and services) against explicit standards and best practice, and to use
any shortfalls in standards of care to enable improvements to be made.” (RPS)

Question 2

Purpose of clinical audit

Answer 2

“The aim of a clinical audit is to determine whether a current service or procedure reaches a specified standard, to use that information to inform
improvements in care, and then evaluate those
changes by re-auditing.” (RPS)

Question 3

Why is clinical audit important?

Answer 3

• It provides a mechanism for reviewing the quality
of patient care
• It addresses quality issues systematically and explicitly, providing reliable information
• It can highlight areas needing improvement
• It supports the development and improvement of personal professional practice

Question 4

The 7 pillars of clinical governance

Answer 4

1. patient and public involvement
2. clinical audit
3. risk management
4. clinical effectiveness programmes
5. staffing and staff management
6. education, training and continuing professional and personal development
7. use of info to support clinical governance and health care delivery

Question 5

Clinical Audit Cycle

Answer 5

1. Identify problem or issue
2. Set criteria and standards
3. Collect data
4. Analyse data
5. Implement change

Question 6

Aims of clinical audit:

Answer 6

– To determine whether a current service or procedure
reaches a specified standard, to use that information to
inform improvements in care, and evaluate those changes
by re-auditing

Question 7

Aims of service evaluation:

Answer 7

To determine what standard a service or procedure

achieves

Question 8

Aims of research:

Answer 8

To derive new knowledge by generating or testing a

hypothesis, or by better understanding phenomena

Question 9

Audit, Service evaluation &

Research‐ whatʹs the difference?

Answer 9

• Boundaries between audit, service evaluation
and research are not absolute, and they have a lot in common
• Identifying projects as ‘research’, ‘audit’ or
‘service evaluation’ is important, for example, in relation to the need for ethical approval
• Audits & service evaluations do not need ethics approval but care should still be taken to
ensure, for example, confidentiality of
personally-identifiable information