Clinical audit of the Consultation-Liaison psychiatric service of a metropolitan hospital.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to use clinical indicators to track changes in efficiency of a Consultation-Liaison service as part of a clinical audit cycle. METHODS: This was a clinical audit cycle. The auditing phase involved measuring the efficiency of the service. The 'intervention' was simply the team's awareness and involvement in tracking these statistics. Subsequently, these indicators were re-audited. RESULTS: In the initial audit cycle, 315 referrals to the C-L service were audited over a 3 month period, showing a 24 hour time-to-seen rate of 80% and a 36 hour time-to-seen rate of 89.2%. Upon re-auditing of 112 referrals following our intervention, 24 hr timeliness had risen to 92% and 36 hr timeliness had risen to 96.4%. CONCLUSION: The measuring of clinical indicators of efficiency in C-L may give service improvement personnel a reflection of the functionality of a C-L service. By involving team members in the measuring and tracking of these indicators, we may be able to boost overall clinical efficiency and outcomes.