Current Topic:
Practice Development Part 2 Evaluating a practice initiative
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Abstract
This second of two modules considers the use of audit to evaluate the effectiveness of a practice initiative and more specifically, the involvement of patients in the design of the audit and dissemination of the outcomes.
Technological advances, increased expectations of the public, and changing health needs are all impacting on heath service delivery. Roles and services are evolving to meet these needs and many individual practitioners are expanding their roles and taking on new responsibilities. To ensure their new practice provides quality, practitioners need not only external governance but also the skills to adopt a reflective approach and to be able to objectively evaluate their own practice. By reflecting on a current or past incident or issue, an evaluation takes place and this can influence the implementation of changes.
Clinical governance is the process by which all parts of the service provider quality assure it management decisions. The World Health Organisation divides clinical governance into 4 areas: Professional performance, Resource use, Risk management and Patient satisfaction.
Clinical audit is defined as a quality improvement process that aims to improve healthcare by performing systematic reviews of care or practice, and implementing change. These changes may be at an individual, service or national level, but audit itself is concerned with implementing change that will benefit the service user. The review, or evaluation, of a service gives useful information regarding performance, but cannot be regarded as audit until practice has been modified to benefit the service user. Reviewing the implemented changes against the expected standards completes the audit cycle. Audit, therefore, can be found at both the beginning and the end of the process of practice development.
The main aim of this module is to provide you with knowledge and understanding of the history, process and development of clinical audit as a tool to evaluate a practice initiative.
