Culturing conversation: How clinical audits can improve our ability to choose wisely

Kerina J. Denny, Gerben Keijzers

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorialResearchpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

[Extract] When evidence exists that an intervention causes more harm than benefit, there is an ethical imperative to translate that knowledge into practice. Unnecessary investigations and treatments not only cause patient harm, but also waste time and money. This is the crux of the Choosing Wisely Australia initiative, which aims to minimise low‐value care and encourage clinicians and consumers alike to question the notion that ‘more is better’.1

The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) endorsed Choosing Wisely Australia recommendations are the result of a working group of nine emergency physicians, with evidence reviews subsequently completed for each recommendation.2 Our short report published in this issue on blood culture collection in the ED3 briefly explores one of these Choosing Wisely Australia recommendations and compares it to practice in one large, tertiary‐level ED in Australia.

Unsurprisingly, the results of our observational study were not consistent with the current Choosing Wisely Australia recommendation or with what we, or our infectious disease and microbiology colleagues, consider to be best practice. While the results of the study are far from ground breaking, the most important outcomes stemmed from the interdisciplinary conversations that it sparked, leading us to re‐evaluate this recommendation. We can only assume that, all around the country, clinicians are having similar interdisciplinary exchanges….
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)448-449
Number of pages2
JournalEMA - Emergency Medicine Australasia
Volume30
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Culturing conversation: How clinical audits can improve our ability to choose wisely'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this