Creation of a multidisciplinary team electronic audit database: a service improvement project
Aims
To compile a central audit database, conducted by different multidisciplinary team members on a mixed medical and surgical critical care unit, in order to improve both record-keeping and trainee awareness of current and past audit projects.
Methods
Data on audits conducted on the unit over the last 2 years (2012–13) were collected by interviewing key staff members from the various multidisciplinary teams. Microsoft Access 2003 was used over a period of 3 months (2013–14) to create tables consisting of stakeholders, specialty, title, background, methods, key results, conclusions, changes in practice and whether the data required re-auditing. From this, a search coding was written to facilitate searching the database by title, date, stakeholders and completion status amongst other fields. User interface forms were created and optimised following pilot work. They facilitated new data entry and search, and consisted of drop-down pre-populated menus and free text fields. An audit trail code was included to track changes made to records. All coding was written in Visual Basic.
Results
A fully functioning secure audit database was operational on this unit from April 2014. This new system has allowed an electronic record to be kept of all audits conducted on the unit, along with a brief synopsis. This is a vast improvement on the prior situation, where there was no central record of all audits, be it paper based or electronic. It has improved our quality indicators for ‘clinical governance’.
Conclusions
This database has allowed efficient search of audits conducted on the critical care unit and has facilitated trainee involvement in active audit projects. This should allow more audit cycles to be completed by identifying incomplete projects. The database is currently being tailored for use in another department and is easily modified for use in other clinical settings.
Conflict of interest statement
None.
- © Royal College of Physicians 2015. All rights reserved.
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