Re-audit of physical examination on admission

Re-audit of the physical examination of older adults admitted to one of two inpatient Older Adult wards at the Maudsley Hospital found that on admission, only 58% of patients had a brief physical examination and 43% had a full physical examination, and after 72 hours only 65% had a full physical examination. This is a slight improvement on the previous audit but still falls short of the target of 90% of patients having a full physical examination within 72 hours of admission. Recommendations include education of junior and senior doctors of the need for physical examination via presentation of audit and distribution of results, consideration of the use of a proforma to gather information on physical examination which may have been done in an acute hospital and a further re-audit to see if outcomes have improved.