ABSTRACT
This chapter defines audit and discusses some of the methods to measure the quality of palliative care services. It follows the development of quality assessment, from its roots in simple assessment of care towards a more scientific method of service quality assessment: audit. The interrelationship between audit, outcome measurements and quality of care and how these methods of quality assessment can affect the quality of a person’s life are discussed. The chapter also considers why being able to monitor the quality and effectiveness of services is particularly important in today’s health care climate, with particular emphasis placed on the UK perspective.
