Emergency recompression: clinical audit of service delivery at a national level

John A. S. Ross, Martin D. J. Sayer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Clinical audit is an essential element to the maintenance or improvement of delivery of any medical service. During the development phase of a Nationla Recompression Registration Service for Scotland, clinical audit was initiated to provide a standardised tool to monitor the quality of outcome with respect to the severity of presentation. A functional audit process was an essential consideration for planned future measurement of treatment efficacy at local (single hyperbaric unit) and national (Multiple hyperbaric units) scale. The audit process was designed to be undemanding robust and informative irresepctive of the experience of treatment centre and of the clinician in charge of treatment. The clinical records from 104 cases of divers with decompression illness were used to derive and evaluate measures of severity and clinical outcome that could be used for audit and quality assurance. The various measures of disease severity were examined against clinical outcome and days spent in care after admission to a hyperbaric unit. An initial version of the clinical audit format that was developed from this process is presented.5
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)33-37
Number of pages5
JournalDiving and Hyperbaric Medicine
Volume39
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2009

Keywords

  • Clinical audit
  • decompression sickness
  • decompression illness
  • recompression
  • hyperbaric oxygen therapy
  • outcome

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