Clinical Governance: An International Journal: Volume 8 Issue 3

Knowledge, not evidence, should determine primary care practice

Neil Small

In 1996 and 1997 authoritative reports identified the absence of a research culture in primary care. This article reviews progress since then in the context of the wider…

Increasing influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates in high risk groups in one primary care trust as part of a clinical governance programme

A. Niroshan Siriwardena, Tracy Wilburn, Louise Hazelwood

The background is that clinical governance is a new mechanism for improving patient care within primary care organisations. The aim is to investigate the ability of practices in a…

Failed appointments – do telephone reminders always work?

Ronald Blankenstein

This audit was undertaken to determine whether there would be a decrease in failed appointments (did not attend DNA) from an average of 26 per cent over the previous nine months…

Medical assessment and direct admissions to a community hospital

John Young, Umesh Sharan

A new tier of intermediate care services for older people is being introduced in England and one function of these services will be district general hospital (DGH) admission…

Benchmarking assertive community treatment: a report from Waltham Forest

Ilyas Mirza, Debbie Green, Godfrey Luyombya

Aims to describe the change in bed day usage of patients referred to an assertive outreach team. The setting is an outer borough of London. Describes the method as a retrospective…

An audit of paediatric fever in NHS Direct: consistency of advice by nurses using computerised decision support software systems

Pauline Lambell, Anne Cooper, Sam Hoyles, Sally‐Ann Pygall, Alicia O’Cathain

Three written scenarios, based on paediatric fever, with expected outcomes of self‐care (scenario 1), GP routine care (scenario 2) and urgent care (scenario 3), were presented to…

Piloting a systematic, evidence‐informed approach to service development in primary care

Hilarie Bateman, Jon Emery, Ruth Bastable, Peter Bailey

A systematic and evidence informed approach to new service developments (the “spotlight” approach) was developed with members of a new primary health care team. The approach aimed…

Informed consent for orthopaedic surgery: a prospective audit

Pankaj Sharma, Anand Arya, Samrendu Singh

A prospective audit of 76 patients undergoing elective orthopaedic surgery was performed. The aim of this audit was to assess how effectively patients are consented at a busy…

Quality of documentation during consent procedures in a UK plastic surgery unit

Bruce Elliott, Nicholas Cawrse

Reports a retrospective review of 78 plastic surgery records comparing the quality of documentation of consent with agreed local policy in a district general hospital. Only 54…

An explanation of theories that guide evidence‐based interventions to improve quality

Wally R. Smith

The concept of evidence‐based medicine, or medical practice based on up‐to‐date research about the best available diagnoses and treatments, has been well accepted into mainstream…

Making an impact: exploring delegates’ perceptions of the clinical governance development programme

Grace Sweeney, Annie Ellis

Aims to identify the positive and negative impact that the NHS Clinical Governance Support Team’s (CGST) Clinical Governance Development Programme (CGDP) was perceived to have (or…

Risk management, records and the Laming Report

Jane Cowan

This article examines the substance and recommendations of the Laming Report into the death of Victoria Climbié. It discusses the implications from a risk‐management perspective…