Clinical Audits in a Postgraduate General Practice Training Program: An Evaluation of 8 Years' Experience

BACKGROUND Clinical audit can be of valuable assistance to any program which aims to improve the quality of health care and its delivery. Yet without a coherent strategy aimed at evaluating audits' effectiveness, valuable opportunities will be overlooked. Clinical audit projects are required as a part of the formative assessment of trainees in the Family Medicine Residency Program (FMRP) in Kuwait. This study was undertaken to draw a picture of trainees' understanding of the audit project with attention to the knowledge of audit theory and its educational significance and scrutinize the difficulties confronted during the experience. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The materials included the records of 133 audits carried out by trainees and 165 post course questionnaires carried out between 2004 and 2011. They were reviewed and analyzed. The majority of audit projects were performed on diabetic (44.4%) and hypertensive (38.3%) care. Regarding audits done on diabetic care, they were carried out to assess doctors' awareness about screening for smoking status (8.6%), microalbuminuria (19.3%), hemoglobin A1c (15.5%), retinopathy (10.3%), dyslipidemia (15.8%), peripheral neuropathy (8.8%), and other problems (21.7%). As for audits concerning hypertensive care, they were carried out to assess doctors' awareness about screening for smoking status (38.0%), obesity (26.0%), dyslipidemia (12.0%), microalbuminuria (10.0%) and other problems (14.0%). More than half the participants (68.48%) who attended the audit course stated that they 'definitely agreed' about understanding the meaning of clinical audit. Most of them (75.8%) 'definitely agreed' about realizing the importance of clinical audit in improving patients' care. About half (49.7%) of them 'agreed' that they can distinguish between 'criteria' and 'standards'. CONCLUSION The eight years of experience were beneficial. Trainees showed a good understanding of the idea behind auditing the services provided. They demonstrated their ability to improve the care given in health centers in which these projects were undertaken.