A survey of current audit practice in occupational health

In the 1990s, challenges were identified in relation to the quality of practice in occupational medicine, including a limited evidence-base and the need to translate good evidence into high-quality practice. Audit has been identified as having an important role to play in addressing the determinants of variations and quality in practice.

To explore current practice of occupational health (OH) audit and outcome measures.

A survey of 30 OH conference participants who were affiliated with an OH service or a professional body, from ~2000 attendees at the Triennial Congress of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) in Dublin, Ireland, over 2 days in May 2018.

Of the 30 participants, 1 was lost at follow-up and 29 participants gave verbal consent to answer questions in relation to carrying out audit and outcomes. Overall, 25 participants undertook regular audit, 19 on an annual basis, 4 on a monthly basis and 2 every 2 years. Twelve participants confirmed multiple audit outcomes and 13 used audits for internal training purposes only. Four participants did not undertake any audit. Less than 50% confirmed multiple audit outcomes that included internal feedback for training purposes and external publication such as conference poster presentations and peer-reviewed publications.

This limited observational study underscores conclusions of previous research that development of clinical audit guidance and measurement of outcomes in occupational medicine is mostly unpublished.