Related Experiment Videos
Reliability and validity of the Intercollegiate Stroke Audit Package.
P H Gompertz1, P Irwin, R Morris
1Tower Hamlets Healthcare Trust, London, UK.
Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
|March 10, 2001
Summary
The Intercollegiate Stroke Audit Package demonstrates good reliability for stroke audits. Careful piloting and clear instructions for auditors ensure trustworthy data collection across multiple disciplines and hospital sites.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Quality Improvement
- Clinical Audit Methodology
- Stroke Medicine
Background:
- The National Sentinel Audit of Stroke requires reliable data collection tools.
- Ensuring the validity and reliability of audit instruments is crucial for accurate quality assessment in stroke care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate and establish the reliability of the Intercollegiate Stroke Audit Package for the National Sentinel Audit of Stroke.
- To assess inter-rater reliability among auditors from different disciplines.
Main Methods:
- Audit standards were developed by a multidisciplinary working party and refined using a modified Delphi survey.
- Audit questions were piloted for validity and reliability, followed by the creation of Help Booklets.
- A national audit involved double-rating 886 case notes across 184 sites, with interdisciplinary auditors in 77% of cases.
Main Results:
- Kappa scores for audit items ranged from 0.49 to 0.87 (median 0.70), indicating moderate to very good agreement.
- Very good agreement was observed for 7 items, good agreement for 30 items, and moderate agreement for 8 items.
- The study involved a large sample size across diverse hospital settings and disciplines.
Conclusions:
- The Intercollegiate Stroke Audit Package is a reliable tool for national stroke audits.
- Thorough piloting of audit tools and clear auditor instructions enhance data reliability in clinical audits.
- Multidisciplinary involvement and standardized procedures contribute to the validity and consistency of stroke audit data.