Clinical Audit at the Sheffield Kidney Institute

What is Clinical Audit?

Clinical audit is a quality improvement tool. The aim of clinical audit is to improve patient care by comparing the standard of treatment given against specific guidelines.

Clinical audit is an on-going process and includes the following stages:

Identify relevant guidance (for example, national or Trust-wide policies)
Collect specific information and data about the care and treatment given to patients
Review the data and compare the results to the standards in the guidance
Identify where changes to care and treatment may be needed to meet the standards in the guidance
Write an action plan and make sure any changes are implemented

When the actions in the plan have been taken, the process should be repeated to ensure the standards are being met.

What clinical audit is taking place at SKI?

Every year the SKI clinical audit team decide which guidance should be audited. The team identify experienced members of staff to carry out the audit for each piece of guidance.

Our audit programme is monitored by the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Clinical Effectiveness department and reports are regularly sent to the Trust board for review.

Our current clinical audit projects include:

Drug treatment given to patients after a kidney transplant
Community intravenous iron infusions
Kidney biopsy
The UK Renal Registry (UKRR)*

* The UKRR collects, analyses and publishes information about the treatment of kidney failure in people on dialysis or with a kidney transplant in the UK. Full annual reports can be downloaded (free) at: www.renalreg.org but please be aware that they are written for healthcare staff in technical language.