Death Audits in general practice involves reviewing deaths within a practice to identify areas for improvement in end-of-life care and quality of care. This process can help practices learn from past experiences, refine processes and ensure that patients receive the best possible care in their final days. 

This support article will guide you through the resources available on Ardens Manager and how to carry out death audits using the Dashboard.

Select the Services icon and click on Population.

To view the death data for your practice, click on the Deaths tab. 

 

The dashboard is split into two categories; Overview and Last Month.

Use these reports to monitor how many referrals were sent to the Coroner and Medical Examiner, either in total or just for the previous month. 

Use the Trend chart to visualise the number of deaths over time and identify your trend. 

Use the Demographics tab to get an understanding of the dynamics of your deceased patients. This can include age ranges, areas of deprivation, as well as condition registers. 

Use the Patients list to review the records of deceased patients to perform your audit of their care at the end of their life, and whether there are any learnings.

 

To view an individual record, click on the copy icon next to the patient's name. Paste this into your patient search in your clinical system to review the record. 

Alternatively, you can export the patient list out of Ardens Manager using the Export function at the bottom of the NHS numbers. The second option for your Clinical System can be used in this instance to put the full list of patients back into your Clinical System for further action.