Specialty Referral Delay Audit

DEMO DATA

Audit whether inpatient specialty referrals are requested, prioritised, reviewed, actioned and escalated reliably, and assess their impact on diagnosis, treatment, discharge, length of stay and patient safety.

OverviewHow to useProject setupTeamInclusion / exclusionData collectionDashboardSubmissionsFindingsImprovementRe-auditResourcesExport centreSettings
Referral episodes reviewed
7
Sample data
Overall compliance
88%
Target ≥ 90%
Review within timeframe
29%
Specialty advice or bedside review
Estimated bed days
14.5
Attributable to referral delay
Aim
To assess whether specialty referral processes are timely, clear, safe and action-focused, and to measure the impact of delayed specialty advice or review on patient care, discharge planning, length of stay and safety.
Standard
Local specialty referral policy and inpatient referral SOP, supported by NICE NG27, NICE QS136 and GMC continuity of care standards. Local compliance target 90%.
Sample
Target sample 60 referral episodes across the selected wards, departments, specialties and services.29 audit criteria. Pseudonymised data only.
Clinical purpose
This audit reviews whether inpatient specialty referrals are made clearly, triaged appropriately, reviewed within locally agreed timeframes, actioned reliably and escalated where delayed. It focuses on adult patients where delayed specialty advice or review affects diagnosis, management, treatment decisions, discharge readiness, length of stay, patient safety, handover or continuity of care. The audit should support improvement work around medical, surgical, therapy, mental health liaison, palliative care, pharmacy, critical care outreach and other specialist review pathways.

Tool workflow

    Step 1
    Project setup
    Scope, wards, departments, specialties, services, leads, policies and guidance sources.
    Step 2
    Team
    Add supervisors, contributors, specialty and governance leads.
    Step 3
    Inclusion / exclusion
    Confirm scope and review the 29 audit criteria.
    Step 4
    Data collection
    Structured form for each referral episode.
    Step 5
    Dashboard
    Compliance, delay stages, Pareto analysis, impact and trends.
    Step 6
    Findings
    Interpretation, good practice and gaps.
    Step 7
    Improvement
    Actions, PDSA cycles, sustainability and re-audit.
    Step 8
    Resources
    Linked national guidance and local policy references.
    Step 9
    Export centre
    Editable Word, PowerPoint, poster, Excel and ARCP outputs.
Add a referral episode
Open the structured data collection form.
Plan improvement
Gaps, actions, PDSA cycles and re-audit plan.
Generate outputs
Word, PowerPoint, A0 poster, Excel and ARCP evidence.
Clinical safety note
This tool supports local audit, quality improvement and governance review. It does not replace clinical judgement, local referral policies, specialty advice, emergency escalation pathways, critical care outreach criteria, safeguarding processes, Mental Capacity Act requirements, discharge policy, incident reporting or specialist decision-making. Any clinical deterioration, missed urgent referral, delayed emergency review, unsafe discharge concern, safeguarding concern, capacity concern, serious diagnostic delay or patient safety concern must be escalated according to local policy. Do not enter patient names, NHS numbers, hospital numbers, full dates of birth, addresses or other direct identifiers.