Internal and external clinical audit in nuclear medicine

Overview

Any provider of medical services, the part of which is medical irradiation, is legally obliged to fulfill many duties according to the Act No. 373/2011 Coll. These are among others: to elaborate local radiological standards (LRS) and guarantee their implementation, to execute an internal clinical audit, to arrange an external clinical audit and to provide an arrangement for correction of discovered imperfections and, if required, to investigate the reasons for non-revealing these imperfections by internal audit and to adopt adequate measures. The provider is obliged to conclude a contract for realization of external clinical audit in all its departments performing medical irradiation within 1 year beginning from the day of announcement of the list of authorized persons on the web pages of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic. External clinical audit must be performed at least once in 5 years. Internal audit of LRS must be performed every year. This audit, responsibly performed, will bring the department a good feedback if its documents and LRS are complete and meaningful. It should not be only a formal document-making and inspection but primarily working standards which, with its implementation, will be a good handbook for physicians and medical staff.

Key words:
clinical audit, local radiological standards,