Audits

The word audit is of Latin derivation and means ‘hearing’. It dates back to biblical times when it was customary for a landowner to ask his steward to give an account of the way in which his property was being put to use.

Audit is about taking note of what we do, learning from it and changing if necessary. Using an audit cycle, we can identify opportunities for improvement in patient care and the actions required to realise them. Audits can be used alongside clinical guidelines to help make the transition towards evidence based medicine.

By producing a package of audits we can ensure equity of information gathering across the region. The results from these audits are designed to support prescribing initiatives and ensure that we are prescribing cost-effectively thus maximising the health benefit to be gained by patients.

The audits available on this web-site are designed for use in Dumfries and Galloway Health Board and can be downloaded from here.

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