Study Guide – Clinical Audit

 

Stage 2 - Setting criteria and standards, page 2

What should be happening? - Setting standards

    Think: Have a go at defining what an audit standard is.

 

How does it compare with this?

“An audit standard is a minimum level of acceptable performance for that criterion.”

 

→ Examples:

"At least 80% of eligible women aged 25-65 should have had a cervical smear in the last 5 years."

“At least 60% of asthmatics should have had a Peak Flow recorded in the past year.”

“100% of drugs in our doctors’ bags should be in-date.”

 

The standard should reflect the clinical and medico-legal importance of the criterion.

• in the example above, 80% of women should have had a cervical smear,

• But of those who've had an abnormal smear, 100% should have had action taken.

Standards may change with time:

• 70% of patients with IHD should have a cholesterol <5mmol/l  - this is pertinent clinically today because the NSF says so

• but in the future a higher standard may be expected as a result of clinical governance.

     Tips

• Some criteria are so important that they need 100% standard.
• However, 100% standards are unusual – patients or circumstances usually conspire against perfection and the standard needs to reflect that.
• Your literature search should give you an idea of what standards others have managed to reach.
• Your standard needs to follow on directly from your criterion – for example,

“Patients on thyroxine should have had TSH done in the last year; this should have happened in at least 90% of patients”.

 

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Next page: Getting the data

 

Back to: "Audit Contents" page

Last update: 16 February 2007