Why audit?
Some professional opportunities
For the individual and the organisation as well as to patients there are potential benefits. Engaging in audit can lead to;
- Improved quality of care
- A sense of personal and professional achievement
- Relevant Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- Improved team working
- Improved communication within an organisation
- Enhanced understanding of the structure and processes operating within the organisation
- Improved practice based skills such as the identification, management and use of information
- Improved GMS Contract performance
Is it clinical audit or research?
It is important to differentiate between audit and research.
Research is about creating new knowledge (which treatment is better?)
Clinical Audit is about taking that knowledge and making sure we are doing the things that work best and doing them effectively
Table1 below denotes the major differences
| Research | Audit |
|---|---|
| Discovers the right thing to do | Determines whether the right thing is being done |
| A series of 'one-off' projects | A cyclical series of reviews |
| Collects complex data | Collects routine data |
| Experiment rigorously defined | Review of what Health Professionals actually do |
| Often possible to generalise the findings | Not possible to generalise from the findings |