Background Good quality physical healthcare provision for patients with a serious mental illness can be challenging. Healthcare staff may feel they lack the knowledge and support to manage their patients’ physical healthcare needs. Patients, therefore, may receive reduced quality of care for their medical conditions whilst an inpatient on a psychiatric unit.

Aims To identify areas for improvement of physical healthcare provision for inpatients on a unit for patients with psychiatric disorders.

Method A closed-loop audit was conducted on an inpatient psychiatry unit in West Sussex, UK. Retrospective data was manually collected from patient information systems. All new admissions between 14th January – 15th May 2021 were included for the first audit cycle (21 patients). After educational intervention, a second audit cycle was completed including all new admissions between 23rd May – 23rd July 2021 (18 patients).

Results The first audit cycle showed that 86% of patients had a physical examination and 76% had a venous thromboembolism (VTE) assessment within 24 hours of admission. It took an average of 13 days for the admission blood tests to be taken and, on average, 19 days for completion of admission electrocardiogram (ECG). Five patients did not have an ECG throughout admission. A reason for this was documented for four of these patients.

Following educational intervention, the percentage of patients having a physical examination and VTE assessment within 24 hours of admission increased by 8% and 24% respectively. The average number of days for admission blood tests and ECG completion decreased by 12 days and 13 days, respectively.

Conclusion The improvements made during this audit process may hasten the detection and treatment of medical pathology. Overall, this improves patient care and aids avoidance of the complications of delayed diagnosis or treatment.

*Corresponding author and presenter.