JRSM > Volume 94, Number 6 > Pp. 288-289

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An audit of audits: are we completing the cycle?

Janaki Gnanalingham MBBS   Muhuntha G Gnanalingham MRCPCH     Kanna K Gnanalingham PhD MRCS  ¹

St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0QT;
¹ National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK

Correspondence to: Mr Kanna K Gnanalingham, ‘Brindhavan’, 11 Deena Close, Queen's Drive, London W3 0HR, UK

Clinical audit plays an important part in the drive to improve quality of patient care and thus forms a cornerstone of clinical governance. We evaluated the standard of clinical audits conducted by all departments in a teaching hospital between 1996 and 1997.

Of a total of 213 audits carried out, 102 (48%) were ‘partial’ and only 29 (14%) were ‘full’. Recommendations for improvement emerged from 134 (63%) of the audits performed. In only 51 audits (24%) was the cycle completed by re-auditing, during the subsequent 3 years.

Most departments undertake clinical audits but failure to close the loop undermines their effectiveness and wastes resources.

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