RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Outliers from national audits: their analysis and use by the Care Quality Commission in quality assurance and regulation of healthcare services in England JF Clinical Medicine JO Clin Med FD Royal College of Physicians SP clinmed.2020-0695 DO 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0695 A1 Grote, Helen A1 Toma, Keiko A1 Crosby, Laura A1 Robson, Catherine A1 Palmer, Clare A1 Land, Claire A1 Ball, Jessica A1 Baker, Edward YR 2021 UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2021/08/12/clinmed.2020-0695.abstract AB The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. As part of the intelligence-driven approach to regulation, the CQC works closely with national clinical audit bodies to identify key metrics which reflect quality of care and track the performance of providers against these metrics. Where outliers on national audits are identified that may reflect risks to patients, the CQC encourages the hospital to identify any learning points and implement changes to improve patient care.In this article, we describe the role of national audit outcomes in the regulatory process and how providers can use national audits to inform both quality assurance and quality improvement processes, with two illustrative case studies. We discuss the ongoing challenges with using audit data in the regulatory process and how these could be addressed.