Evaluating ambulatory care: three approaches

Area of Science:

• Nursing Audit Programs
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Ambulatory Care Management

Background:

• Establishing effective ambulatory audit programs is crucial for quality nursing care.
• Existing methodologies require adaptation for diverse ambulatory settings.
• The University of Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics utilized a specific framework.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe three distinct approaches for implementing an ambulatory nursing audit program.
• To illustrate the application of a single, adaptable audit methodology.
• To provide practical examples of ambulatory care audits.

Main Methods:

• Adaptation of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals methodology.
• Development of variations in audit program establishment.
• Focus on specific ambulatory care audit topics.

Main Results:

• Successfully established three variations of an ambulatory nursing audit program.
• Demonstrated the applicability of the methodology across different clinical areas.
• Detailed audit processes for post-kidney transplant, desensitization, and well-child care.

Conclusions:

• The described approaches offer a flexible model for developing ambulatory nursing audit programs.
• The Joint Commission methodology can be effectively tailored to ambulatory settings.
• Auditing specific areas like post-transplant, desensitization, and well-child care enhances quality.