General practitioner experience of clinical self audit.

OBJECTIVE

To record the experience of 87 general practitioners who undertook a two phase clinical self-audit of their recording of risk factors for cancer and cardiovascular disease and the acceptability of the audit process to them.

METHOD

Participants were members of two Victorian Divisions of General Practice, one rural and one metropolitan. Each practitioner completed a clinical self-audit with a pre and post audit questionnaire. The post audit questionnaire was a repeat of the pre audit questionnaire with the addition of specific questions to measure their experience of the audit process.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Likert scale and qualitative response.

RESULTS

The results indicate that general practitioners thought the process was sound and taught them something about their actual rather than perceived practice, but were wary of sampling techniques and whether the audit reflected the recording of risk factors rather than preventive practice.

CONCLUSION

The potential of clinical self audit in Australian general practice is highlighted particularly in the light of Practice Assessment as a compulsory component of vocational registration.