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Audit

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Essentials for Quality and Safety Improvement in Health Care

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Abstract

An audit is an indispensable quality assurance method for improving the quality of care and services. It allows for the independent gathering of data generated during clinical practice and service in a systematic and transparent way for review against agreed standards with the aim of identifying areas for improvement in the quality of care and service. This chapter is designed to equip and inspire medical and non-medical personnel at all levels, as well as medical students, to take the first steps towards the use of this important quality improvement tool. For this reason, detailed guidance is provided on a complete audit cycle ranging from how to select an audit topic and draw up criteria on how to conduct data analysis, create a report, implement the outcome and re-audit. To boost understanding, medical records are used as examples to demonstrate how each of the components of the audit cycle is designed and implemented. This chapter also explains how an audit could be used to evaluate health policies, design educational and training programmes and encourage the use of modern medicine. The barriers and enablers of effective audits in health care are also explained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Patient Safety and Quality Care for Africa (PASQUA), Ashford, Kent, UK

    Christopher Ente

  2. Romivic Specialists Hospital, Eket, Nigeria

    Michael Ukpe

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  1. Christopher Ente
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  2. Michael Ukpe
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Ente, C., Ukpe, M. (2022). Audit. In: Essentials for Quality and Safety Improvement in Health Care . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92482-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92482-9_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-92481-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-92482-9

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