1. Template to use when writing an audit report
Title
Author
Date

2. Table of Contents
Page
1. Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................3
2. Background/Introduction....................................................................................................................3
3. Aims & Objectives...............................................................................................................................3
4. Method..................................................................................................................................................3
5. Results..................................................................................................................................................3
5.1 Displaying the results................................................................................................................3
5.2 Missing data..............................................................................................................................3
6. Conclusions.........................................................................................................................................4
7. Recommendations and Action plans................................................................................................4
8. Disseminating information and presenting results..........................................................................4
9. References............................................................................................................................................4
10. Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................................4
11. Appendix...............................................................................................................................................4

3. Executive Summary
A short abstract or executive summary here will help draw the reader’s attention to
important issues.
Background/Introduction
Give the Background – Explain why you are doing an audit – was it a response to
concern or complaint, personal interest, national guidance, repeat of previous audit
etc. Give the criteria and standards that you are using – Explain if you are auditing to
national standards, such as NICE, NSF etc or to established good practice or to a
locally agreed standard. eg “100% of A&E patients must be assessed within 4 hours
(national standard)”
Aims & Objectives
This should state the aims and objectives of the audit and the question being asked
of the audit. Objectives should be measurable, achievable, realistic and time limited.
Method
Give the methodology of your audit –you will want to describe both the size of your
audit and how you selected those who were involved. e.g. “the first 10 patients
th
attending the 13 May 2007 afternoon dental clinic were selected” or “20 notes of
patients admitted to the ward in August 2007 were selected at random”.
Ideally, there should be sufficient information for a person reading your report to
understand what you have done, and if need be, to repeat the audit themselves.
Results
Displaying the results
As a general rule the simplest ways of describing results are the best. Pie-charts to
show the various proportions of responses or bar charts to compare one thing to
another will work well. However, always give the raw numbers as well as the
percentages otherwise it might be over-simplified to the point of being mis-leading.
e.g. Remember the advertising slogan, “8 out of 10 cats prefer it”.
This was a powerful statement indicating an 80% favourable rating,
Missing data
If you have missing data comment on why this happened. e.g. “questionnaires were
given to 10 patients in the waiting room. However one patient said he had felt unwell
and didn’t feel he could finish the questionnaire. Sections 9 and 10 are therefore
blank for this patient”

4. Conclusions
Keep you conclusions short and to the point
e.g. 95% of patients were assessed within 48 hours
If you have had any problems with the audit, note them here.
e.g. 6 of the 50 patients approached didn’t have English as a first language and
found it difficult to complete the questionnaire, may need to have a translation in
future audits.
Recommendations and Action plans
Make your suggestions as to how the service could be improved – either by yourself
or others
Disseminating information and presenting results
Give feedback to all concerned stakeholders. Ensure that all those that need to
know, know. Give positive feedback to all those involved. How are you going to
communicate your findings to others i.e. Circulate the report, Newsletter, Intranet,
Presentations, Open forums etc…
References
Acknowledgements
Give the name and profession of those involved in the Audit project
Appendix
Always attach your audit tool or questionnaire to your report as an appendix – this will save a lot of
explanation.