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Clinical audit and clinical guideline
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58. (1) In this Part—
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“clinical audit” means a clinically-led quality improvement process in healthcare—
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(a) for the purpose of improving patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit specific clinical standards or clinical guidelines and taking action to improve care when clinical standards or clinical guidelines are not met, and
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(b) which selects aspects of the structure, processes and outcomes of care for systematic evaluation against explicit specific clinical standards or clinical guidelines;
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“improving patient care and outcomes”, in relation to a clinical audit, includes the contribution to the improvement of the safety and quality of care for patients by—
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(a) facilitating greater self-evaluation for health services providers and health practitioners, and
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(b) measuring clinical practice against evidence-based clinical standards or clinical guidelines,
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which provides information for health services providers and health practitioners for learning from the documented conclusions required for, and provided by, the clinical audit thereby improving patient care and outcomes.
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(2) In this Part, “clinical guideline” means a statement relating to clinical care—
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(a) that is used to assist in making decisions in relation to appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances by—
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(i) a health services provider or a health practitioner (or both of them), and
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(ii) the patient and the health practitioner or the health services provider (or as the case may be, both of them) where a decision is made in consultation with a patient,
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and
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(b) which is repeatedly subjected to systematic review and evaluation.
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(3) In respect of a reference to clinical standards or clinical guidelines that are evaluated in a clinical audit, a clinical audit may be carried out for the purpose of establishing a new clinical standard or clinical guideline that will in turn be used for the carrying out of the clinical audit or be evaluated in a subsequent clinical audit and references to—
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(a) clinical audit,
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(b) clinical guideline, and
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(c) clinical standards,
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shall be construed accordingly.
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