Rheumatology
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A national audit was performed assessing the early management of suspected inflammatory arthritis by English and Welsh rheumatology units. The aim of this audit was to measure the performance of rheumatology services against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) quality standards (QSs) for the management of early inflammatory arthritis benchmarked to regional and national comparators for the first time in the UK. ⋯ The audit has highlighted gaps between NICE standards and delivery of care, as well as substantial geographic variability.
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Our aim was to conduct a national audit assessing the impact and experience of early management of inflammatory arthritis by English and Welsh rheumatology units. The audit enables rheumatology services to measure for the first time their performance, patient outcomes and experience, benchmarked to regional and national comparators. ⋯ This audit demonstrates that most RA patients have severe disease at the time of presentation to rheumatology services and that a significant number continue to have high disease activity after 3 months of specialist care. There is a clear need for the National Health Service to develop better systems for capturing, coding and integrating information from outpatient clinics, including measures of patient experience and outcome and measures of ability to work.