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Patient tracer audit guide: patient deterioration systems | He aratohu tātari mō te whai tūroro

4 Aug 2023

This guide is for health care professionals rather than the general public. It is available below in MS Word and PDF formats.

It outlines:

  • the essential parts of a patient deterioration system for adult, maternity and paediatric (tamariki) patients
  • suggested questions to help health professionals complete a ‘tracer audit’. This may be used by health organisations to ensure they are providing safe and reasonable levels of service.

The guide is designed to help hospitals put in place a patient deterioration system and find ways to improve.

It has been developed by the national patient deterioration programme of Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission, which aims to reduce harm from failures to recognise or respond to acute physical deterioration for people in hospital.