(2)" Significant event audit - A concern expressed by one GP was the misinterpretation of a significant event audit, an event which the doctor can learn from, as a serious incident which is then taken up formally by the custodial organisation.
Promising interventions for these populations include optimising discharge instructions, telephone follow-up and regular adverse event audits.
The three GP principals submitted evidence of extended practice, a colleague survey, a significant event audit and a clinical audit (not full-cycle).
A recent analysis of significant event audits in lung cancer highlighted how cancer can mimic other diagnoses and have atypical presentation.
Participating primary care practices completed a significant event audit (SEA) report for the last patient diagnosed with cancer as a result of an EP.
Significant event audit (SEA) is a quality improvement tool designed to assist with and improve the quality of patient care in general practice (Pringle et al, 1995; McKay et al, 2009).
Significant event audits in primary care have highlighted the need to find a balance between avoiding unnecessary anxiety in symptomatic patients and the potential risks of over-reassuring patients with an all-clear diagnosis.
In primary care, these interventions might be, for example, significant event audits targeting EPs and subsequent review of referral practice, perhaps similar to recent recommendations for the management of existing cases of cancer to prevent emergency admissions (Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Radiologists, 2012).
"Yes, easy access to records because they're all computerized… I literally went into the records of 120 people…it was time consuming, to do a really valuable audit… (8)" Significant event audits and review of complaints – There were established organisational systems of clinical governance in custodial environments.
As the study was attempting to gain a snapshot of the ability of these GPs to gather five years of the proposed supporting information in a data collection period of four months, the study participants were asked to prioritise the collection of the newer types of supporting information - patient and colleague surveys, significant event audits and full-cycle clinical audits.
