An audit of admission physical examinations in the settings of medium security

The paper presents an audit of admission physical examinations performed in the settings of medium security. Documentation regarding 16 key items of the admission physical examination was assessed. During the first audit, 51 admission physical examinations were assessed, and 50 were assessed on repeat audit. The standard of documentation of the physical examination was poor, and remained poor on re‐audit. Significant improvement was noted only in the recording of temperature, which had improved from 4 out of 51 (8%) to 13 out of 50 (26%) in audit 2 (Yates‐corrected ‐2 =4.72, d.f.=1, p<0.05). Of particular concern are ongoing omissions in the neurological examination and poor recording of marks, bruises and injuries.