Vestibular Schwannoma Screening Guidelines: Change in our practise. An audit loop

Abstract

Clinical audit is the review of clinical performance, refining the clinical practice as a result and the measurement of performance against standards-a cyclical process of improving the quality of clinical care. Royal Gwent Hospital did not have written guidelines for requesting MRI scan in clinically suspected Vestibular Schwannoma patients. Northern Regional Guidelines were introduced for requesting Magnetic Resonance Scans in such patients. Scan requests were looked into retrospectively and then prospectively after introducing the guidelines, and our compliance with the guidelines compared. There was reduction in the number of inappropriate scan requests after introduction of the guidelines.Interesting findings were that number of scan requests increased and the pick up rates of Vestibular Schwannoma decreased during this period.