Randomisation and sample size for clinical audit on infection control

Summary Clinical audit is both a part of clinical governance and an essential component of infection prevention and control. It is frequently performed on a proportion of the target population. The sample should represent the source population and be sufficient for statistical analysis. In a hospita...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of hospital infection 2010-12, Vol.76 (4), p.292-295
Main Authors: Fournel, I, Tiv, M, Hua, C, Soulias, M, Astruc, K, Aho, L.S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Clinical audit
Clinical Audit - methods
Cluster randomisation
Cross Infection - prevention & control
Humans
Infection control
Infection Control - methods
Infectious Disease
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
Quality in healthcare
Random Allocation
Representativeness
Sample Size
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Summary:Summary Clinical audit is both a part of clinical governance and an essential component of infection prevention and control. It is frequently performed on a proportion of the target population. The sample should represent the source population and be sufficient for statistical analysis. In a hospital, infection control practices are likely to be quite similar within the same clinical area (cluster effect). This must be taken into consideration when calculating the necessary number of patients. Sample size is determined by the desired level of precision for estimating the compliance rate, or by the difference between observed and expected rates, or on the difference before and after implementation of interventions. To estimate the hospital-wide compliance rate without additional costs we suggest focusing the audit on a large number of wards, even if fewer observations within each ward are obtained, rather than auditing a large number of practices on a restricted number of wards.
ISSN:0195-6701
1532-2939
DOI:10.1016/j.jhin.2010.05.025