Improving Knowledge of Audit and Feedback among Health Care Professionals in Sicily

Abstract

Audit and Feedback (A & F) is considered one of the most significant tools for implementing continuous Quality Improvement (QI) in the healthcare field. The audit process is a structured inspection of professional practice against known standards or targets. The results of this inspection are subsequently feedback from professionals in order to implement an improvement process. The Italian Ministry of Health has recently funded the network project EASY-NET, with the main objective of evaluating the effectiveness of A&F strategies to improve healthcare practice and equity in various clinical and organizational settings in seven Italian regions. The Sicily region is represented within the EASY-NET project by the IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino-Pulejo of Messina as the Work Package 7 (WP7). One of the objectives of the WP7 is to assess mechanisms and tools to enhance the effectiveness of A&F strategies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence that training interventions can have on improving knowledge of A&F strategies among healthcare professionals. The study employed a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest evaluation strategy. The participants’ initial knowledge of A&F strategies was evaluated through a baseline survey. Subsequently, the participants attended an online training workshop led by A&F experts, and a follow-up survey consisting of the same set of questions was conducted at the end of the process. Results showed statistically significant positive changes in the level of knowledge of A&F among participants following the training intervention. Furthermore, dividing the participants into two subgroups based on their professional background revealed significant differences in the level of knowledge of A&F methodologies between the observed categories of healthcare professionals. In conclusion, the study revealed that training interventions can be facilitators to implementing effective A&F programs.