HQIP guide to ensuring data quality in clinical audits

Guidance | Published: 01 Jan 2011

While some of the information in this handbook is still relevant, much of the references and terms are out of date. Please note that HQIP will not be updating this guide.

This guide to ensuring data quality in clinical audits describes how a clinician or group carrying out a clinical audit can ensure the quality of data collected for the audit. It includes:

  • What data quality means
  • What’s involved in achieving quality data for clinical audits
  • How to ensure that the purpose or objective of a clinical audit is so clear that it identifies
  • The nature of the data needed for the audit
  • How to ensure that the cases selected to be included in or excluded from a clinical audit are the right cases and that cases selected won’t produce biased results
  • How to test the validity of clinical audit standards
  • How to check if data collection processes are producing reliable data
  • How to select data collectors for a clinical audit and ensure they are doing the right job
  • How to quality control data collection and data entry
  • How to avoid pitfalls in data collection
  • How to make arrangements for sharing data for clinical audit purposes across healthcare
  • Organisations and ensure that information governance requirements related to clinical
  • Audit data are being met

Reviewed 2011

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HQIP guide to ensuring data quality in clinical audits