On Introducing Medical Audit

Abstract

Audit means many things to different doctors and managers. Formal clinical audit, involving the setting of clinical standards and peer review of the performance of clinicians, is what will be required in future. Expertise is the most important resource needed, both to guide doctors and managers, and to provide the back‐up staff needed to carry out data collection. It has not been found that money and/or computers pro‐duce true formal clinical audit. The UK National Health Service will need to look at the production of the medical record, and doctors at how to deal with persistent clinical ‘outliers’, if audit is to produce its ultimate aim — the improvement in patient care.