How to do a clinical audit

Clinical audit, as defined by Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership and endorsed by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), is: ‘…a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care and the implementation of change’.

Clinical audit is a way to find out if healthcare is being provided in line with standards and lets care providers and patients know where their service is doing well, and where there could be improvements. The aim is to allow quality improvement to take place where it will be most helpful and will improve outcomes for patients. Audit measures current practice against a defined (desired) standard. It forms part of clinical governance, which aims to safeguard a high quality of clinical care for patients.