HalswellHealth strives to provide excellent, evidence-based care.
We regularly undertake practice-wide clinical audits to assess the care we are providing against best practice guidelines.
Most Recent Audit
We looked at whether patients prescribed long-term steroids (Prednisone) were receiving recommended bone health investigations and treatment.
Long-term (> 3 months) steroid use is sometimes necessary for a variety of inflammatory or immune system disorders. The use of long-term steroids has well-established detrimental effects on bone mineral density, increasing the risk of Osteoporosis and fractures occurring with minimal force. The Practice audited all patients prescribed Prednisone (any dose) for more than 3 months in the preceding 12 months, to ensure they had been offered bone mineral density screening and appropriate medications for bone health. Any gaps in care were corrected and we have developed a clinical template to ensure that patients prescribed longterm steroids are informed of potential risks and investigated and managed as appropriate.
You can read more about the use of long-term steroids via this link:
https://www.healthinfo.org.nz/index.htm?Oral-steroids.htm
