CLINICAL AUDIT

Clinical Audit

Clinical Audit

Brief Description of the Organization

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust provides leading quality-integrated mental health, learning disability and community health services. The Trust was formed in the year 2002 with the aim to provide learning disability, mental health and substance unauthorized usage services. During the April of 2011, Leicester Partnership Trust merged with Rutland Community Health Services Leicestershire County and Leicester City as a result of the national Transforming Community Services agenda. This has given it great opportunities to join up mental health and physical health care pathways to advance health and wellbeing for the people and communities of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Leicestershire Partnership Trust serves a population of one million people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, have a budget in excess of £250 million and employ almost 6000 staffs in a wide variety of roles (Baker and Robertson, 1999, pp.10).

Leicestershire Partnership Trust works with family doctors (GPs), local hospitals, social services and other local authority departments such as housing and education. It also works with voluntary organizations and local community groups. The services of the trust are organized into four operational divisions: adult mental health services; adult learning disability services; families, young people and children's services; and community health services (Chamber, 2007, pp. 95).

The organization deals with three kinds of patients, inpatients, outpatients and community patients. Inpatients are those who are residents in the wards. Outpatients are those who visit in order to avail services or have an appointment with a nurse or a doctor, but they continue to stay at home. Community Patients are those who are visited by the health care professionals at home or in a community setting.

Rationale

Clinical audit is important for obvious reasons. One of the initial benefits of clinical audit can help improve the quality of the services that are being offered to patients. Regardless of the form of clinical audit, it is not easy to know whether the organization has been practising in a coherent manner, and it is even more difficult to demonstrate it for others. There are various benefits to clinical audit:

It promotes and identifies the practices and can lead an organization to provide improved delivery services. It provides outcomes for users and can additionally provide information that requires showing that the service is being offered in a coherent manner. Clinical audit helps ensure the development and provides opportunities for education and training (Leroux, 2003, pp.123).

Discussion

Leicestership Partnership Arrangements for Clinical Audit

The Leicestership Partnership has made arrangements for the clinical audit. The organisation has devised a framework that oversees the activities of clinical audit in the organization. The framework revolves around the clinical audit program of the trust and aims to balance the requirements for evaluation and audit for clinicians individually. It also looks after for the services that are being provided by the organisation as a whole. The arrangements comprise of the local and the national priorities and it also included prioritises that is set by the business unit, clinicians and clinic services (Moore, 1997, ...