The Physical Examination on Admission to the Acute Psychiatric Unit -complete Audit cycle

While suicide and injury account for increased mortality, a large volume of premature deaths in psychiatry are due to medical conditions. The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommend that every new psychiatric admission should have a thorough physical examination within 24 hours of their admission. We randomly reviewed charts of 50 new admission to the Acute Psychiatric Unit to check the adherence to these guidelines. Forty patients (80%) had complete physical examination, nine patients (18%) had incomplete physical examination, and one patient (2%) had no physical examination in the Re Audit. This compares to 32 patients (64%) had complete physical examination, 16 patients (32%) had partial physical examination, and two patients had no physical examination (4%), in the first audit.There has been overall improvement in the physical examination since the first audit. However documentation of vital signs and weight remained and issue. Chaperon documentation had improved in the re-audit, although further improvement still required.