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Clinical Audit Knowledge Exchange (CAKE)
An Introduction to the Clinical Audit Knowledge Exchange
The Clinical Audit Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) provides access to clinical audit templates and allows NHS Trusts and other organisations to compare their clinical audit results. This brief introduction is intended to help users get started in getting the most out of the resource - more detailed guidance on the system is available once users have registered.
- Register for CAKE >>
- CAKE homepage (for registered users) >>
- Technical requirements >>
- How CAKE works: joining a group >>
- How CAKE works: group administration >>
- How CAKE works: using templates, creating your own and benchmarking >>
- Detailed user guide (PDF) >>
- Comments and feedback >>
CAKE is designed for use with Internet Explorer 7 or later and uses Microsoft SharePoint software, which is designed to be used with Microsoft Office 2007. In practice many of the clinical audit templates on the system use Excel 1997-2003 spreadsheets which work successfully with both Microsoft Office 2007 and many previous versions of Office. If users have problems in using the system, they should firstly check which versions of Excel they have access to before escalating any issues to HQIP.
The user's first step is to register for CAKE. The process is self explanatory and HQIP will then monitor and approve registrations. If a user's application to register has been unsuccessful, HQIP will respond providing a reason for the decision and details of how to contact us review the decision.
How CAKE works: joining a group
In order to download audit templates users must first join a group. In most cases the group users join will be the group that has been specifically set up for your Trust or employer.In the first instance, each Trust or organisation must nominate a Group Administrator (see below) who will then set up the group for that Trust or organisation. If users are experiencing difficulties with this, please contact us via CAKE's dedicated contact page.
How CAKE works: group administration
If HQIP is asked to set up a Trust group, that Trust will be asked to nominate one or more individuals to become the Group Administrators. If users set up their own group, that user automatically becomes the Group Administrator. As administrator, that user can then authorise group membership requests, and can also invite other invididuals to join via email.
Each group must have a unique name, and HQIP administrators will review the system regularly to ensure that (for example) only one group is set up for each Trust. However, it is the responsibility of the Group Administrators to ensure that members of their group, and any other employees of their Trust who want to use CAKE, are aware of their own Trust's policy regarding the use of external systems like CAKE.
Group Administrators also decide which audit results should be published to the benchmark, and are responsible for ensuring group membership is accurate and up to date - for example, removing members from the group when individuals leave the organisation.
IMPORTANT: Group Administrators must give their groups a clear and unique name and also include a clear statement of what and who the group is for.
How CAKE works: using templates, creating your own and benchmarking
Once you have registered and joined a group, users can create a new clinical audit by choosing one of the templates available in the Audit Catalogue. At launch (June 2011), a range of templates have been provided by NICE and consist of specially adapted versions of NICE audit support tools.
Users can download the template from CAKE, carry out their audit, and then upload their results back onto CAKE. Once happy that the results are final, the Group Administrator can publish them to the audit benchmark. This allows users to view their results against those of any other groups which have also used the same template. Users can identify their own results, with all other submissions anonymised. An online user guide has been created on CAKE to help users with this process. This is also available for download as a PDF.
As CAKE develops, groups will be able to upload their own clinical audit templates and make them available to others via the audit catalogue. Templates need to be in Microsoft Excel and adapted to make them compatible with CAKE. The instructions on how to do this are in the user guide.
HQIP welcomes comments and feedback regarding CAKE. A 'contact us' page has been created on the system itself which users should wherever possible to provide feedback. If users have tried and are unable to use the dedicated CAKE contact system, please send feedback to cakeadmin@hqip.org.uk.
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