Please note that the National Council for Osteopathic Research website has information about clinical audit. Please click on http://www.ncor.org.uk/practitioners/audit/ for further information.
The information below summarises the information outlined in the Clinical Audit Handbook and is designed to provide a simple overview. It is recommended, that before undertaking a clinical audit, all osteopaths should read the NCOR Handbook for Clinical Audit.
What is clinical audit?
Clinical audit uses data from your own practice in order to generate new insights about practice.
Clinical audit is a process which can support quality improvement.
The process has the following stages:
Why undertake clinical audit?
Clinical audit can help you to look at your practice in a different way, learn new things and enhance your practice as a result of new knowledge.
Clinical audit can have many benefits including:
What types of activities can be audited?
You can audit any aspect of your practice. For example:
The NCOR Audit handbook for practising osteopaths
An audit handbook specifically intended for osteopaths in private practice has been developed by NCOR.
The handbook is available to all osteopaths. The Handbook provides information about clinical audits, templates and worked examples of clinical audits undertaken by other osteopaths.
A range of audit tools have been developed suitable for practice. They can be found here.
Where can I find other sources of information about audit?
NCOR have written a Masterclass entitled “Clinical audit in osteopathic practice”.
You can read the full article at: http://www.ncor.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Fawkes_2013_clinical_audit.pdf
A range of publications exist concerning clinical audit; they vary considerably in terms of detail. A summary of what audit is and isn’t can be found in the summary prepared by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and can be found here. (www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/clinauditChap1.pdf).
A general guide to audit, and advice on further sources of training can be found at the Clinical Audit Support Centre.
An in-depth guide can be found in the document entitled “Best Practice for Clinical Audit” and can be found here
(http://www.apcrc.nhs.uk/audit/documents/nice_best_practice_clinical_audit.pdf)
Clinical audit is an inherent part of NHS practice. A number of extremely useful guides on all aspects of the process aimed at NHS staff can be found here.
(http://www.uhbristol.nhs.uk/for-clinicians/clinicalaudit/how-to-guides/)
References:
You can also download this information as a pdf.