About Us
The Clinical Audit Support Centre is the brainchild of Tracy Ruthven and Stephen Ashmore. Tracy and Stephen formerly managed Leicestershire Primary Care Audit Group (PCAG) and collectively have over 20 years experience in clinical audit and quality assurance across all sectors of the NHS.
The Clinical Audit Support Centre was founded in September 2006 and is a Private Limited Company. Tracy and Stephen are the founders, owners and directors of the business.
The main aim of the centre is to provide bespoke support and training to healthcare professionals across a range of quality improvement fields. The work of the centre is quality assured and all staff that work for the organisation must have an academic qualification in clinical audit or clinical governance. In addition, staff who deliver training must possess a nationally recognised teaching qualification.
The Clinical Audit Support Centre offers a new and innovative approach to the delivery of clinical audit. It is our aim to facilitate and support audit projects that improve patient care and enhance service delivery. We work in partnership with healthcare professionals and non-healthcare professionals to deliver practical and user-friendly quality improvement materials that represent excellent value for money.
The Clinical Audit Support Centre is based in Leicester and is ideally placed to provide support to healthcare professionals across the United Kingdom. We have skills in a wide range of quality assurance techniques and access to experts who will be able to assist you in the pursuit of better patient care and the delivery of best practice.
Whether you are an individual who needs training in the clinical audit process or a large organisation who require guidance on establishing a clinical audit programme, the Clinical Audit Support Centre is here to help you.
Tracy Ruthven
Tracy Ruthven (formerly Johnson) joined the NHS in 1994 and initially worked for the clinical audit team at North Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Trust. In 1997 she became Clinical Interface Audit Co-ordinator for Leicestershire Fosse NHS Trust before being appointed Deputy Manager at Leicestershire Primary Care Audit Group in 2000.
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Stephen Ashmore
Stephen Ashmore joined the NHS in 1995 and has over ten years experience working in clinical audit and quality assurance. He initially began his career as a trainee audit facilitator for Walsgrave Hospitals NHS Trust before leaving the Acute sector and becoming Manager of Leicestershire Primary Care Audit Group in 1999.
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Sharon Nijjar
Sharon Nijjar joined the Clinical Audit Support Centre team in August 2009. She has previous experience working in the NHS and won placement student of the year from De Montfort University for her work conducting patient surveys across primary care from 2004-5.
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Mission Statement
The Clinical Audit Support Centre will continually strive for excellence in clinical audit and aim to deliver best practice within this field with a view to ultimately raising the profile and reputation of clinical audit and quality assurance across all sectors of healthcare.
Criteria We Work To
As part of his work assessing Clinical Governance Reviews in 2003, Stephen Ashmore developed a pioneering set of audit criteria against which Trusts and audit departments could measure their work. This extensive document included many standards for clinical audit delivery, such as “the Trust should have a clinical audit strategy”, “staff should have access to audit training” and “trusts should have a database of audit activity”, etc.
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