Standards and Audit in Occupational Health

Introduction:

For formal Distance Learning in Occupational Medicine or Occupational Hygiene, access the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Manchester. This resource is an abridged adaptation of a version originally written by the author in the 1990s and updated regularly since, and from which teaching resources were developed and expanded for use by the Manchester Distributed Learning Courses.

After undertaking the complete version of this self-learning Continuing Professional Education exercise, the occupational health professional should:

1 Have accepted the importance of audit as a tool to achieve quality in occupational health and medicine, while understanding its limitations.

2 Understand the definitions and taxonomy of audit as relevant to occupational medicine,

3 Be able to choose suitable topics for audit,

4 Be able to undertake specific audits and implement change.

Learning method:

To get the maximum benefit from this mode of learning it is recommended that you start reading page by page in sequence (while resisting the temptation to skip forward) and then pausing, thinking and making notes. For active learning you should put your thoughts down in writing and only proceed after that.

The contents of these abridged pages are listed below:

Page 1: Introduction to Audit in Occupational Health Practice
Page 2: Audit in Occupational Medicine
Page 3: Choosing topics for Audit
Page 4: Classification of Audit
Page 5: From Evidence Base to the Audit Standard
Page 6: Auditing Occupational Health Consultations
Page 7: Example: Sickness Absence & Rehabilitation
Page 8: Example: Back Pain Consultations
Page 9: Example: Mental Health Consultations
Page 10: Audit of Outcome
Page 11: An integrated example (Health Surveillance)
Page 12: Closing the Audit Loop
Page 13: Setting in Context
Page 14: Conclusion

CATOH (CORRESPONDENCE ASSESSMENT/AUDIT TOOL IN/FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH)

This page is:
http://www.agius.com/hew/audit/

You may also wish to access the following URL:
http://www.agius.com/hew/resource/quality.htm

References:

Publications by this author relevant to this subject include the following, in chronological order (earliest first):

Agius R M. Peer review audit in Occupational Medicine. J Soc Occup Med 1990; 40: 87-88.

Agius RM, Lee RJ, Murdoch RM, Symington IS, Riddle HFV, Seaton A. Occupational Physicians and their work: prospects for audit, Occupational Medicine,1993, 43: pages 159-163.

Agius RM, Lee RJ, Symington IS, Riddle HFV, Seaton A. An Audit of occupational medicine consultation records. Occup Med 1994; 44: 151-67.

Seaton, A, Agius, R, McCloy, E, and D'Auria, D Practical Occupational Medicine, London, Edward Arnold, 1994, Chapter 10, and Appendix 5.

MacDonald E, Agius R et al. Quality and Audit in Occupational Health, Report of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, Royal College of Physicians of London, ISBN 1-86016-000-X, 1995.

Agius, R M. Occupational Asthma and Rhinitis, Health Surveillance and Secondary Prevention, Occupational Health Review 1995, No 55, pp 28-31.

Agius, R M, Seaton A, Lee RJ. Audit of Sickness Absence and Fitness for Work Referrals, Occupational Medicine 1995, 45:125-30.

Agius R. Auditing occupational health services. J Finn Occup Phys; 1998, 16: 28-30.

Agius R M, Lee R, Fletcher G M, Uttley J. Quantitative methods in evaluation – the medical audit. In Westerholm P, Menckel E (eds) Evaluation in Occupational Health. Butterworth-Heinemann. London. 1999, pp 53-66.

Agius R. Quality assurance of occupational health services for health care workers. In Hasselhorn H-M, Toomingas A, Lagerstrom M (eds) Occupational Health for Health Care Workers. Elsevier, Amsterdam.1999, pp 16-21.

Agius, R.M. Auditing Occupational Medicine. Occupational Medicine 1999, 49: 261-264

Agius, R, and Seaton, A. Practical Occupational Medicine, 2nd edition. London, Hodder Arnold, 2006, 284-289.

Walsh L, Menzies D, Chamberlain K, Agius R, Gittins M. Do occupational health assessments match guidelines for low back pain? Occupational Medicine 2009, 59: 71-74.

NOW.... Consider your understanding and definition of Audit in the context of Occupational Health and Medicine. Make notes of this to permit you to compare your perspective with that presented in the following pages. Only then proceed to the next page.

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