This module is going to focus on clinical audit, which was defined by NICE (the National Institute for Care and Health Excellence) in 2002 as: “A quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change.

Before we start, however, clinical audit is not:

• Research, which is about determining best practice, whereas audit is about determining if best practice is being followed
• Merely collecting and analysing data. In an audit, data is collected and analysed in terms of pre- defined standards
• A tool to criticise the patient care provided. Audit acts as a tool to assure the ongoing quality of care, including multidisciplinary care.