The audit process

VASM is a peer-review process. Participation by consultant surgeons is a requirement of the College's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program. The audit process is initiated by notification of the death of a patient while under surgical care. The following procedure is followed:

1. The VASM office will send a case record form to the (treating) surgeon responsible for the care of that patient and invite them to participate in the audit;
2. Completed case record forms are returned to the VASM office;
3. All identifying information is removed from the form;
4. The case record form is then sent to another consultant surgeon (first-line assessor) of the same specialty but from a different hospital, for (anonymous) peer-review;
5. The assessor gives their opinion as to the adequacy and appropriateness of management of the patient and whether the case would benefit from a more detailed review;
6. If no further review is felt necessary, the treating surgeon will receive feedback to this effect and the case will be closed;
7. If a more detailed review is requested or if the surgical assessor considers that insufficient information to reach a conclusion was provided on the original case record form, a more detailed review of the case will be initiated (second-line assessment);
8. For this second line assessment a copy the patient's case-record is required. VASM will forward the original case record form with the case-notes to another consultant surgeon from the same specialty, but in a different hospital for a written review;
9. When complete, the outcome of this review will then be fed back to the (treating) surgeon responsible for patient care.