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User involvement in clinical audit: a review of developments and issues of good practice *
Author(s) -
Kelson Marcia
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2753.1996.tb00034.x
Subject(s) - audit , rhetoric , general partnership , public relations , product (mathematics) , good practice , clinical practice , process (computing) , politics , service (business) , medicine , health care , business , political science , nursing , marketing , computer science , engineering ethics , engineering , accounting , linguistics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , finance , law , operating system
There have been considerable political and organizational moves to involve ‘consumers’ (patients, carers, service users, potential users, local communities and the public at large) in the provision, planning and monitoring of health services. Such developments beg the question ‘what constitutes good practice in user involvement?’. Taking user views into account relates not only to obtaining feedback on ’hotel’ aspects of care (issues such as food and cleanliness) but also to the potential for patient input to clinical audit and the standards by which care itself is measured. Recent policy statements specifically advocate involving users in the process and product of clinical audit. In practice, ‘involvement’ has meant anything from passing on information to full and active participation in partnership with professionals. This paper outlines some of the issues raised in the published literature on user involvement in clinical audit. Suggesting that real involvement refers to users as active participants, not passive recipients, the paper documents the increasing policy commitment to user involvement and considers issues that influence how the rhetoric is put into practice.