HQIP to define markers for high quality clinical audit

6 January 2009: HQIP have announced plans to secure agreement on what constitutes markers or criteria for quality in clinical audit.

There is a huge volume of audit undertaken, some good, some very good, and some less so. This arises partly because there is no national, consensually agreed definition of the markers of quality in audit.

There are good examples of individual organisations or publications which have sought to define quality in audit. However there is no agreed definition that covers local and national practice in one simple set of standards.

Since we came into being, this is something that has consistently been requested. People want to see such a standard for various purposes, not least of all simply for practitioners to make their own assessment of the quality of the work they are doing. In the future, this validated list of criteria could also have other uses, for example in the revalidation process.

In the next few months, HQIP will undertake a mix of desk based research, focus group workshops and wider consultation to develop a consensus on what constitutes audit quality.

To begin the process, HQIP are holding a series of focus groups and hope that many organisations can be involved. These are:

19th February 2009 - Leeds
24th February 2009 - London
26th February 2009 - Bristol

We expect this work to be completed in late spring 2009 and hope that many organisations will be involved. For more information, click here.

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