Conference Presentation
Clinical audit for reducing cost and increasing quality of health care.

Abstract:

From working on individual system to integrating them and evaluating the output is the next step towards a role model is the health service. New system and technology should ideally work towards that aim. The issue is, how can it be done and the answer to this lies not in better management alone but in achieving-clinical excellence.

The healthcare system, the patient and the staff, all three interact towards fulfilling “excellence”. So, what we are essentially looking at is, a complete governance or more aptly “clinical governance” to ensure that we are doing what is the best practice, whit optimum involvement of all concerned, and alloying for zero error or system failure towards patient care. One of the essential tool of this frame work, is Clinical Audit.

Clinical Audit can be used to examine all aspects of patient care from assessment through to outcomes and work towards reducing the extra costs of treatment. In order to audit health care it is necessary to have a standard or guidelines for intended care to audit against.

This paper looks at what are the unnecessary costs, what is the role played by clinical audit, in reducing these costs  and  therefore what benefits it can provide for the organization.

There is future citation of some news item published in various reputed journals that show how clinical audit has helped organization. For example one published in British medical journal about outcome figures of two studies, Found that there was a 25 % lower risk of dying within a year after discharge if Hospitals followed national guidelines and taught their patients how to follow those standards at home and in another-for every 10%

Increase in adherence, mortality fell by 11%.