Evidence searches for audit

Guidance for this type of search.

The suggested time to allocate to this type of search is 4 - 7 hours. 

Please read:

  • "All evidence searches" (see "Quick links") before proceeding
  • and the "Supplement" section for examples of this type of search

Planning

Establish what service is being audited.  Are there:

  • specific setting(s) and population(s)
  • non-arbitrary date ranges to search within
  • geographic or language limits etc.

Would they like to know what other NHS and non-NHS organisations are doing?

Execution

Search for specific audits and audit tools from Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership’s (HQIP) AZ of Clinical Audits

Search high tier evidence sources such as:

  • Cochrane Library
  • Trip Database
  • Royal Colleges and other professional bodies (via a Google search).

Keep an eye out for standards and guidance from these sources but do not limit your search to JUST these things.

Search clinical decision support tools for entries on the requester’s topic, if you have access to them:

  • BMJ Best Practice
  • DynaMed (££)
  • UpToDate (££)
  • Visual Dx (££)

Consider searching for information on conducting audits more generally if you feel that the requester might appreciate this “added value content”.

Perform a thorough search of all appropriate bibliographic databases, and consider a search of preprint servers for the very latest research.

Finding reports on other Trusts’ advances and activities

Perform an advanced Google search for the topic with “NHS” in your terms, and/or your country specified as UK.

and/or

Limit by domain

limit the search to sites ending with “…nhs.uk” URLs using the limits site:nhs.ukor  inurl:nhs.

Limit by file type

or with doctype:doc or doctype:pdf limits to pick up policy documents and guidelines from around the country.

See "Advanced Google" in "Quick links" within for more information. Search within the NHS England website too – it includes NHS Improvement’s content since their merger.

Consider also searching NHS Digital, UK Data Service, GOV.UK and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as well as local sources.

 

Search filters for costs and economics

EBSCOhost

EBSCOhost features “costs” and “economics” limits that can be applied to Medline and CINAHL searches if cost-effectiveness is being considered by your requester.

Other search filters

There are also a range of search filters available from the Economic Evaluations section of The InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group Search Filter Resource (ISSG) or the McMaster University Health Information Resource Unit (HIRU) filters for cost or economics.

The different filters mention what they are specific to, e.g., costs, economic evaluations or economic models. It is worth having a look to see which search filter would be most suitable for your search or you may want to adapt a search filter by removing or adding terms.

 

Results

Present the deduplicated results according to your requester’s stated preference, or where none is stated, in an easy-to-digest and easy-to-share report, in this order:

  • a summary/synopsis first of all (if possible)
  • high tier evidence
  • lower-tier/primary research evidence arranged in reverse chronological order (a typical KnowledgeShare report format)

Alternatively, arrange results by themes/categories – consider what would be most helpful to the requester.