Using health care audit to improve quality of clinical records: the preliminary experience of an Italian Cancer Institute.

INTRODUCTION: Audit and feedback are recognized as part of a strategy for improving performance and supporting quality and safety in European health care systems. These considerations led the Clinical Management Staff of the "Regina Elena" Italian Cancer Institute to start a project of self-assessment of the quality of clinical records and organizational appropriateness through a retrospective review. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The evaluation about appropriateness and congruity concerned both clinical records of 2013 and of 2015. At the end of the assessment of clinical records of each Care Unit, results were shared with medical staff in scheduled audit meetings. RESULTS: One hundred and thirteen clinical records (19%) did not meet congruity criteria, while 74 (12.6%) resulted as inappropriate. Considering the economic esteem calculated from the difference between Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) primarily identified as main diagnosis and main surgical intervention or procedure and those modified during the Local Health Unit (LHU) assessment, 2 surgical Care Units produced a high negative difference in terms of economic value with a consequent drop of hospital discharge form (named in Italian "scheda di dimissione ospedaliera", SDO) remuneration, 7 Care Units produced about the same medium difference with almost no change as SDO remuneration, and 2 Care Units had a positive difference with a profit in terms of SDO remuneration. Concerning the quality assessment of clinical records of 2015, the most critical areas were related to medical documents and hospital discharge form compilation. CONCLUSIONS: Our experience showed the effectiveness of clinical audit in assessing the quality of filling in medical records and the appropriateness of hospital admissions and the acceptability of this tool by clinicians.

[The Day Service as a tool to reduce inappropriateness of care: the experience of a research hospital in Rome (Italy)]. / Il day service come strumento di riduzione dell'inappropriatezza: risultati dell'esperienza in un Irccs romano.

The Day Service was established in Italy to promote appropriateness of care and consists in the delivery of packages of complex outpatient services. A Working Group for the continuous improvement of pre-hospitalization activities of the Regina Elena Scientific Institute in Rome, Italy, established that the outpatient management of surgical patients in the hospital would occur in a Day Service, through a package of services identified at the regional level or appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic pathways. This article describes the experience of the hospital's Day Service and compares results from the last four months of 2013 with those of the first four months of 2014. The introduction of a Day Service has led to a reduction in the number of inappropriate pre-admission tests (mainly computerized tomography, magnetic resonance and Positron emission scans and scintigraphy) and this has had a positive impact not only in terms of organization, reduction of hospital stay and overall hospitalization-related activities, but also from an economic standpoint. The implementation of a Day Service has also improved the overall patient experience, from an organizational point of view, and this is an important aspect, considering that patients at the Regina Elena Scientific Institute are oncological patients, they are often elderly and most reside in other Italian regions.