Availability and security of blood results to new Foundation 1 doctors: closing the audit loop

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to quantify the provision of blood result logons to new Foundation 1 (F1) doctors in a large teaching hospital over the course of two years, with the audit used to bring about improvement over this time.

Design/methodology/approach

New F1 doctors starting in August 2008 completed a questionnaire assessing their access to blood results and whether they had to resort to using other doctors' passwords. The results were fed back to stakeholders involved in F1 induction, and new F1s were audited again in August 2009.

Findings

On starting the job in 2008, 25 per cent of new F1s had pathology result logons and this rose to 78 per cent at eight weeks. None of the audit targets were met. The results were fed back to the IT department, the medical school and the Human Resources department with the result that in 2009, 90 per cent of the doctors had passwords on starting their jobs, with 100 per cent provision at eight weeks. All of the audit targets were met. Access and security improved considerably from 2008 to 2009.

Practical implications

Ease of access to those staff requiring access to patient data is important for patient safety; this has to be balanced against data security. Extra resources may be required to provide secure access to large numbers of staff starting all at the same time.

Originality/value

This study shows the usefulness of audit as a tool for producing improvements in patient safety and data security in large organisations; very little literature has been produced on this topic.

Citation

O'Brien, D., Pengelly, S. and Lambert, A. (2012), "Availability and security of blood results to new Foundation 1 doctors: closing the audit loop", Clinical Governance: An International Journal, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 8-13. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777271211200701