Data quality and clinical audit

Clinical audit has an increasingly important role in the quality of care being offered to patients. Only good-quality data can enable valid conclusions to be drawn, which in turn enable changes to be made for the better. More and more patient data are held on NHS computer systems, and increasingly these data are being used to facilitate the audit process. The quality of any such data needs to meet the highest standards. This article briefly defines the audit cycle and goes on to consider a typical data model. The various elements of the data model are defined, the understanding of which should enable individuals to avoid pitfalls in data collection and ensure that the data they collect for clinical audit are of the highest quality.