Surgical Audit

An audit improves the quality of patient care by looking at current practice and modifying it where necessary. A medical audit focuses on the evaluation of the overall medical practices and procedures within a healthcare facility to enhance patient care and ensure compliance with standards. In contrast, a clinical audit specifically examines the performance and outcomes of clinical practices against established guidelines, aiming to improve patient care quality in specific clinical areas through evidence-based criteria. A surgical audit is a systematic review of surgical procedures and outcomes to improve the quality of care, enhance patient safety, and optimize surgical practices. It involves evaluating various aspects, such as surgical techniques, complications, patient demographics, and overall outcomes, to identify areas for improvement. The purpose of an audit is to examine whether what you think is happening really is, and whether audited outcomes meet existing standards. Audits can be part of a broader quality assurance program in healthcare settings. Surgical audit is a fundamental part of modern surgical practice; it is an education process that is aimed at measuring performance, reducing risk, and improving patient outcomes. Surgical audit is a quality improvement and educational activity grounded in everyday practice. Audit and feedback help participants analyze their performance and plan effective responses to improve surgical performance. Research shows that audit and feedback are effective educational strategies. To ensure the success of an audit, planning and preparation are essential and may vary depending on the type of audit being considered. Talking with key participants, consideration of an audit topic, and how the audit will be conducted across a hospital/practice/multicenter are all important factors for consideration. Surgical audit is typically based on a five-step cycle: (1) Determine scope, (2) Define standards, (3) Collect data, (4) Present and interpret results (with peer review), and (5) Make changes and monitor progress. Surgical audit is a systematic, critical analysis of the quality of surgical care. It involves reviewing surgical practices against explicit criteria or recognized standards. The goal is to improve patient outcomes by identifying areas for enhancement. Surgeons participate in audits to ensure continuous improvement and enhance the quality of care provided to patients. Six steps to conducting your audit include: Select topic and identify current standards, plan, collect, and analyze data, identify actions needed, make improvements, and re-audit. Surgical audit is part of clinical audit. Clinical audit is a quality improvement tool for evaluating and improving patient care and outcomes. This is achieved by systematically reviewing current practices against explicit criteria and measuring the impact of change(s) introduced to generate improvement. The clinical audit process can be described by “plan,” “do,” “study,” “act” phases that comprise an audit cycle. The phases are moved through in turn to attempt quality improvement. The procedure involves measuring an outcome or process and comparing this to current evidence or best practice, then implementing changes to improve the quality of care.