Approaches to the organization of multi-practice audits in primary health care in the UK

Abstract

The findings indicate that multi-practice audit can encourage the participation of large numbers of practices. Audit groups are co-ordinating multi-practice audits and feeding back information to practices on a comparative basis. However, there are weaknesses in the design and conduct of some audits. Groups should pay more attention to the selection of audit criteria, methods of identifying and sampling patients, data collection procedures, and methods for implementing changes in performance. For other countries that are beginning quality improvement activities, the results of this study emphasize the need to give attention to basic methodological principles.

European comparison of costs and quality in the prevention of secondary complications in Type 2 diabetes mellitus (2000–2001)

“…Explanations for higher process quality in the UK might be the frequent participation of their general practitioners in audits [26], and the presence of a recall system in primary care [11].…”