Supporting practice-based audit: a price to be paid for collecting data.
BACKGROUND
There has been considerable investment by health authorities in the funding of support staff whose job is to collect data for audit purposes. It is important to understand what costs are involved in such a data collection exercise. The cost advantages of using existing practice staff or externally funded staff are not known.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the cost of transposing data on workload to computer software for audit purposes and retrieving data on five chronic diseases from case records.


METHODS
Four audit support staff monitored the time taken to collect specific data as part of a broad audit programme in 12 training practices within one health board area in the West of Scotland in 1997. The time taken was used to estimate comparative costs for using a receptionist or practice nurse for carrying out a similar exercise.


RESULTS
Average costs for collecting data per 1000 patients for waiting time, appointments, recall, and telephone audits were 5.24 Pounds for reception staff, 5.64 Pounds for audit support staff, and 9.68 Pounds for a practice nurse. The average cost for collecting data per patient with diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, hypertension, or rheumatoid arthritis was 1.48 Pounds for reception staff, 1.60 Pounds for audit support staff, and 2.74 Pounds for a practice nurse.


CONCLUSIONS
The cost of collecting data varies considerably depending on which staff are chosen for the purpose. Practices should consider carefully how best to collect data for audit in terms of cost.
Lough
J R
JR
West of Scotland Postgraduate Education Board, Glasgow. mlough@pgm.gla.ac.uk
Willmot
M
M
Murray
T S
TS
D000488:Allied Health Personnel; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003625:Data Collection / Q000191:economics*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit / Q000191:economics*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012606:Scotland; D012984:Software; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D016526:Workload