Introduction to clinical audit

Abstract

There is no doubt that audit is a buzz-word in the NHS today. There is a large literature on audit itself and the Bibliography at the end of the book lists some of the sources that we have found useful. Most of these publications have not considered the use of computers as a tool to aid audit in anything other than a very cursory way. As the use of computers in audit is increasing, this book has been conceived as a response to the demand for more information on this topic, information which, our experiences have shown, has not previously been available in an accessible format. This chapter looks at the theoretical basis of audit from the authors’ viewpoint.