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Alcohol and Alcoholism Vol. 36, No. 6, pp. 609, 2001
© 2001 Medical Council on Alcohol

Book Review

Improving the Care of People in Substance Misuse Services: Clinical Audit Project Examples.

By K. MacLean Steel and C. Palmer. Gaskell, London. 2000, 42pp., £15.00. ISBN: 1-901-242-46-3.

Roger Farmer

This Royal College of Psychiatrists publication presents a number of substance misuse service audit projects addressing the following areas: assessment, clinical care, organization/management processes, and user satisfaction and outcomes. After a brief introduction, the project reports are presented using a standard format with a number of possible sub-headings.

It has to be said that the quality of the projects is extremely variable. In some cases, the methods do not seem to address the stated aims of the project. Some reports do not include all the stages of the clinical audit cycle, which are said in a key to reading the reports, near the beginning of the book, to be ‘crucial’. In some cases, no findings are available as the project is still in progress. With certain projects, the reports are extremely brief with very scant detail.

On a more positive note, the standard format for the presentation of the reports seems to be a good idea and some of the projects are excellent examples of clinical audit. Useful lists of references and resources are provided.

So who will find this book useful? The relative novice to clinical audit may get some ideas and will probably be reassured by how straightforward, yet effective, audit projects can be. Someone more experienced in carrying out audit might attempt to check their protocol against one of the projects described, but will bear in mind the diverse quality of the projects presented.

The book is useful as a stimulant for audit and particularly as a source of ideas for projects. Any future editions might usefully provide a more substantial introduction chapter and present projects of a more uniformly good standard.


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This Article
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