A brief intervention to improve rates and quality of physical examinations for admissions to acute adult psychiatry units

Objective: To determine the frequency and quality of physical examinations within 24 h of admission to an acute adult psychiatry unit, and whether a brief intervention involving feedback to clinicians could lead to improvement. Method: Retrospective review of the electronic medical records followed by four brief feedback sessions and email correspondence, followed by a further review of the medical records 1 month later. Results: The proportion of patients receiving a physical examination increased from 36/71 (50.7%) in the initial audit to 41/64 (64.1%) in the re-audit. The mean score of the quality of physical examinations improved from 7.5 to 9.3 (out of 15). The greatest improvement on re-audit occurred in the documentation of additional cardiac sounds (33.9% increase), additional breath sounds (17.7% increase), breath sounds (17.1% increase), cardiac sounds (14.2% increase) and bowel sounds (12.5% increase). Conclusion: This audit supports the use of brief peer-led feedback to improve the rates and quality of physical examinations.