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Impetus to change: A multi-site qualitative exploration of the national audit of dementia.

Lookup NU author(s): Michael SykesORCiD, Emeritus Professor Richard Thomson, Professor Niina KolehmainenORCiD, Dr Louise Allan, Dr Tracy Finch

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

Background: National audit is a key strategy used to improve care for patients with dementia. Audit and feedback has been shown to be effective, but with variation in how much it improves care. Both evidence and theory identify active ingredients associated with effectiveness of audit and feedback. It is unclear to what extent national audit is consistent with evidence- and theory-based audit and feedback best practice. Methods: We explored how the national audit of dementia is undertaken in order to identify opportunities to enhance its impact upon the improvement of care for people with dementia. We undertook a multi-method qualitative exploration of the national audit of dementia at six hospitals within four diverse English National Health Service organisations. Inductive framework analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis (n=39) and 44 hours of observations (n=36) was undertaken. Findings were presented iteratively to a stakeholder group until a stable description of the audit and feedback process was produced. Results: Each organisation invested considerable resources in the audit. The audit results were dependent upon the interpretation by case note reviewers who extracted the data. The national report was read by a small number of people in each organisation, who translated it into an internal report and action plan. The internal report was presented at specialty and organisation-level committees. The internal report did not include information that was important to how committee members collectively decided whether and how to improve performance. Participants reported that the national audit findings may not reach clinicians who were not part of the specialty or organisation-level committees. Conclusions: There is considerable organisational commitment to the national audit of dementia. We describe potential evidence- and theory-informed enhancements to the enactment of the audit to improve the local response to performance feedback in the national audit. The enhancements relate to the content and delivery of the feedback from the national audit provider, support for the clinicians leading the organisational response to the feedback, and the feedback provided within the organisation.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Sykes M, Thomson R, Kolehmainen N, Allan L, Finch T

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Implementation Science

Year: 2020

Volume: 15

Online publication date: 17/06/2020

Acceptance date: 21/05/2020

Date deposited: 02/06/2020

ISSN (electronic): 1748-5908

Publisher: BMC

URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-020-01004-z

DOI: 10.1186/s13012-020-01004-z


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
DRF-2016-09-028National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

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