Purpose

The purpose of this audit project was to:

• Build on the achievements of the 2009 inpatient audit
• Refine the questionnaires in light of the previous year’s responses
• Run the second National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA)
• Maximise the number of eligible hospitals involved
• Provide quality information to the NHS about standards of care for people with diabetes who are in hospital and to drive service improvements
• Scope and define the current and future requirements for a national diabetes inpatient dataset and to prepare for inclusion in the National Diabetes Adult Audit
• Use data to drive service improvement and support the development of networks that can share learning and improve quality. 

Leadership

This work was led by Dr Gerry Rayman supported by project manager Heather Stephens and a steering group.

Approach

The content and structure of the 2010 audit was refined an developed by the steering group in conjunction with feedback from the service. NaDIA asks the following questions:

• Did diabetes management minimise the risk of avoidable complications?
• Did harm result from the inpatient stay?
• Was patient experience of the inpatient stay favourable?

The audit was conducted on a single weekday in the first two weeks of November 2010. It had three components

• A bedside audit completed by healthcare professionals using the patient’s notes
• A hospital characteristics form that was completed on-line
• A patient experience form completed by the patient

Achievements

• 93% of eligible trusts participated, demonstrating their belief that NaDIA will repay their investment of effort in improving patient care in the long term.
• Bedside clinical data from 12,191 inpatients with diabetes was collected in 169 audit sites (representing 206 acute hospitals in 136 trusts).
• Patient experience questionnaires were received from 4745 (38.9%) patients who were capable and/or willing to complete them.
• A summary sheet has been produced for each unit that participated in the audit. To find out results for your hospital go to Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory.
• NHS Diabetes has also published a final report and summary report.

Final steps

• In April 2011 the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit 2011 was formally handed over to the National Diabetes Audit team (a consortium of the NHS Information Centre, Diabetes UK and Diabetes Health Intelligence)
• The audit week for the 2011 NaDIA is the 3^rd – 7^th October 2011. Further information can be found at: www.ic.nhs.uk/services/national-clinical-audit-support-programme-ncasp/national-diabetes-inpatient-audit

Additional resources

Research and evaluation: Evaluation of the 2009 National Diabetes Inpatient Audit