To introduce psychiatrists to the practice audit process and help them take advantage of double Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credits, the CPA will be piloting a practice audit tool in conjunction with the CPA–Eli Lilly cosponsored symposium, Beyond Acute Episodes in Schizophrenia/Bipolar Disorder: Optimizing Long-Term Outcomes.

The cosponsored symposium will be held during the CPA annual meeting in Halifax, which is scheduled for Oct. 30–Nov. 2, 2003. Program faculty have worked with the CPA to devise a tool based on the symposium material that participants will be able to take home and use to perform an audit of their own practices.

Practice audits fall under Section 5 of the Royal College’s MOC program. Although it is a useful continuing professional development learning tool, it is seldom used by Canadian psychiatrists. Despite the considerable evidence suggesting that practice audits can affect a physician’s practice, many psychiatrists avoid audits because they are unsure of the steps involved in performing one (1,2).

As described in an article by Houlden and Yen (3), the eight steps in performing a practice audit are as follows.

To document the audit, simply retain a copy of the audit proposal and forms, a description of your participation in developing the audit, the date of completion, the summary of findings and the outcomes for practice.

Fellows earn two credits for every hour they spend completing a practice audit, and there is no maximum on the number of credits that can be earned in Section 5 of MOC. Moreover, audits are ideal for psychiatrists who cannot attend conferences and meetings owing to time, financial or personal constraints, as they can be done at will using material that is readily available.

References

1. Davis D, Thompson O’Brien MA, Freemantle N, Wolfe FM, Mazmanian P, Taylor-Vaisey A. Impact of formal continuing medical education. Do conferences, workshops, rounds, and other traditional continuing education activities change physician behaviour or health-care outcomes? JAMA 1999;282:867–74.

2. Silver I. A beginner’s guide to a practice audit. CPD Dialogue 2000;1(2):2–3.

3. Houlden RL, Yen D. The practice audit: addressing the difference between knowing and doing. Annals RCPSC 2000;33:270–2.