Guide to using quality improvement tools to drive clinical audits

10 November 2011

HQIP has launched new guidance on a suite of quality improvement (QI) tools that can be applied through the clinical audit process, to help implement improvements to health services. Comissioned by HQIP, the guide was written by Nancy Dixon and Mary Pearce of Healthcare Quality Quest.

• Download the guide here>>
• Visit the HQIP guidance and resource pages for clinical audit staff>>

"Many clinical services and healthcare organisations have continued to carry out clinical audits using the same model described as in the 1990s, a model that did not refer explicitly to the QI process," said HQIP National Lead for Quality and Improvement Kate Godfrey. "Therefore, QI approaches and tools are not always systematically used when they could be helpful to carry out stages in the clinical audit process. We hope this guide will prove invaluable to our colleagues in the field, who want further support on how to integrate QI into their audit process."

The guide includes QI tools or techniques that can facilitate clinical audit staff to:

• reach agreement at various stages in the clinical audit process
• test commitment to carrying out the audit or to change practice through the clinical audit process
• search for best practice as a basis for standards to be used in a clinical audit
• understand how care is delivered now before any change in a process of care is made
• understand the type of variation that can be shown in clinical practice and the nature of actions needed for each type
• identify the causes of problems that might be revealed by a clinical audit
• achieve changes in clinical practice.