JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Clinical audit has a history stretching back to the work of Florence Nightingale (1800) and Ernest Codman (early 1900s). Both Nightingale and Codman monitored mortality and morbidity rates in their respective institutions. Nightingale used an epidemiological method of review, monitoring rates of nosocomial infections in relation to standards of hygiene. Codman introduced the idea of systematic record review as a way of identifying errors (1-3) . The word 'audit' means to: 'evaluate (esp. by formal systematic review) a ....process, quantity or quality...to evaluate the effectiveness of the management, working practices, and procedures of a company or other professional body... the practice of carrying out such investigations at regular intervals or as part of a continuous process' (4) .