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Inconsistencies in risk assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Paul Harwood
Affiliation:
School of Medicine, University of Leeds
David Yeomans*
Affiliation:
Bradford Community Health Trust, Somerset House, Manor Lane, Shipley, Bradford BD18 3BP
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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An audit of case notes and a survey of in-patients was carried out to evaluate risk assessment on an in-patient ward. We found considerable inconsistencies between the risk assessment records in medical and nursing notes. A systematic survey found higher levels of risk than either set of notes, but combining the notes improved the quality of risk assessment compared to the survey. We suggest three key areas for action to improve risk assessment.

Type
Audit
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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