First, identify your topic. Choose one that focuses on one aspect of care. It might be a priority for improvement, or one that generates patient complaints. Those chosen for the Pharmacy Quality Scheme include those where the circumstances or the service is “high risk”.

You will need to find out if there are already guidelines that you should be following in delivering the service. Lastly, it helps if the data is easy to collect.

You will need to get buy-in, so involve your team in discussions around topic choice. You may need them involved in the audit or collecting data. You could even involve your patients. If you have a line manager discuss it with him or her.

Next, you will need to consider the criteria you are auditing against. Look at the current standards or best practice for the area you are looking to audit. Consider whether there are national guidelines, such as NICE, you could use. Are there local protocols available? What are your aspirations for the service you are auditing?

How will you do it? Your target population needs to be large enough to give you a reasonable number to audit, and be easily audited. Planning an audit of patients or customers you don’t see will be trickier, so you will need to make sure you have enough walk-ins. Will your audit consider sensitive matters that will need privacy? Then, more practically, will you need to ask the audit questions yourself, or can you involve your team? How long will each audit subject take?

Data collection is critical. You will need enough to make it meaningful, and the questions will need to be explicit so they are not open to alternative interpretation, which will make analysis difficult. Ask yourself whether you can collect enough data in the time you’ve given yourself to complete the audit, and think about how you are going to record it. Will you be using a hard copy checklist, or collecting electronically, which will be easier, but take time to set up?

A lot of issues can be ironed out with a pre-audit pilot and review. Test the proposed audit first with a small sample from your target population. Ask yourself whether the data obtained is consistent, and if you are using team members to help, whether they have collected the data consistently. How long did the audit questions take, and how did the patients respond to being asked to take part? If these questions throw up any flaws, or you find it difficult to analyse the data, you may need to refine your audit format.

There is no breach of patient confidentiality if the health professionals using the data already have access to the information in their role of providing care.

Your analysis and interpretation of the audit results are critical to improving your service offer and ultimately patient care.

We should be using clincialaudit as a continuous cycle of quality improvement, systemically reviewing various aspects of patients care to improve their outcomes