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The quality of computerised tomography use in two psychogeriatric services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jon Spear
Jon Spear*
Affiliation:
St Nicholas Hospital, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT
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The aim of medical audit is to improve the quality of medical care (Department of Health, 1989). There was concern that patients referred to a psychogeriatric service (Service X) did not have adequate access to computerised tomography. The nearest computerised tomography scanner was located in a neighbouring district and direct referrals were not accepted. Computerised tomography scans could be obtained indirectly by referral to neurosurgeons. Because of these difficulties “potentially treatable structural lesions” (such as cerebral tumours and subdural haematomas) may have been missed. We decided to compare the use of computerised tomography scans with a nearby service (Service Y) which had a computerised tomography scanner on site. Service X had a catchment population of 33,000 aged over 65 and Service Y a catchment population of 23,420 aged over 65.

Type
Audit
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 17 , Issue 9 , September 1993 , pp. 536 - 537
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 © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1993

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