Computerised clinical benefit-cost audit of mental health care I: Theoretical and practical issues

Routine audit of clinical outcome and its cost is rarely done because agreed measures are lacking and it takes training and effort. Computerisation of clinical benefit-cost audit can speed the process of data collection, aggregation and analysis. Use of a pilot system of this kind is described over four years, with 550 patients and 63 clinicians. Although many problems had to be overcome in computerising an audit approach already long-familiar to staff in its paper-and-pencil form, use of the pilot computerised audit system still saved time. Results highlighted intriguing issues in clinical benefit-cost audit of mental health care. A new and more robust computerised clinical audit system suitable for dissemination has now been developed.