title: Specialty audit leads--has this concept been effective in implementing clinical audit in an acute hospital?
abstract: Clinical audit has a pivotal role to play in improving the quality of patient care. As part of the programme for co-ordinating clinical audit across the trust each clinical area has a nominated doctor to lead and co-ordinate the audit programme in their specialty. This qualitative survey reviews the effectiveness of having specialty audit leads and reviews the progress that specialties have made in developing their audit programme. The semi-structured interviews with 30 clinical audit leads identified an uneven level of development of clinical audit across the trust, and demonstrated that dedicated time would be needed to make these posts more universally successful. Although one size will not fit all, the interviews highlighted some recurring themes--seeds of success--in functioning audit programmes.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Effectiveness Support Unit, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Renshaw
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ireland
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007857:Leadership; D008485:Medical Audit / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D008511:Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D013038:Specialization; D006113:United Kingdom