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Use of vitamin B-12 in Leicestershire practices: a single topic audit led by a medical audit advisory group

Abstract Objectives: To encourage active participation of Leicestershire general practitioners and their staff in audit; to examine the use of vitamin B-12 injections and to achieve a more appropriate use. Design: Implementation of an agreed audit protocol, with central analysis and feedback of anonymous and aggregated data by a medical audit advisory group. Setting: All 147 Leicestershire practices. Main outcome measures: Participation in the complete audit cycle, comparison of actual use of vitamin B-12 injections with agreed criteria of use, and assessment of improvement in use. Results: 264 general practitioners (55% of all doctors from 49% of all Leicestershire practices) completed both phases of the audit cycle, and 321 (67%) completed phase 1 only. Twenty four (16%) practices failed to participate from the outset, and a further 58 (35%) dropped out at various stages. Only 10 of the 37 singlehanded practices completed the audit, although 34 initially agreed to participate. If singlehanded practices were excluded, 56% (61) of practices completed both phases of the audit cycle. In total 1714 patients received B-12 injections. Appropriate use increased from 62% in phase 1 to 72% in phase 2 of the audit; there was a 32% reduction in the number of patients inappropriately receiving B-12 (521 to 352), and the proportion of patients receiving B-12 at the correct frequency rose from 58% to 72%. The proportion of patients in whom all the diagnostic criteria for pernicious anaemia were established before treatment with B-12 was 27% in phase 1 and 28% in phase 2. Conclusion: Our study suggests that single topic audits organised by a medical audit advisory group can encourage large numbers of general practitioners to participate and can bring about changes in behaviour resulting in improvements in standards of care. Nevertheless, advisory groups will need to devise strategies to encourage even higher levels of involvement, most particularly from singlehanded practices.