Relationship between medical audit results and the planning of continuing medical education programs

The Medical Audit Committee chairmen in each of the 70 general hospitals in central and southern Illinois were interviewed. Each chairman was specifically asked questions related to 1) the purpose of their hospital's medical audit; 2) how audit topics are determined; and 3) their committee's competence at developing, conducting and following up on the results of their audit. Questions were also designed to investigate the usefulness of these audit results in planning formal continuing medical education (CME) activities. A total of 75 interviews were conducted with the following individuals: 32 chairmen from small hospitals, 18 from medium hospitals, 12 from large hospitals and 13 from hospitals that had department audit committees. Seventy-nine per cent of the chairmen believe that the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals' (JCAH) requirements are at least partially responsible for their hospitals conducting audits. More than half of the chairmen from small hospitals and one quarter of the other chairmen believed they would suspend conducting audits if the JCAH requirements were lifted. While 81 per cent of the chairmen believed audit was a good method of planning continuing medical education, only 23 per cent of the chairmen could identify a CME program that had been developed from audit. Even though it appears theoretically sound to base formal continuing medical education programs on needs identified through medical audit, those most directly involved in audit at the local hospital level in central and southern Illinois do not perceive this to be a workable model.