Daily Sedation Review Audit

Free projects are complete and ready to use. Paid projects can also be adapted to your local requirements. This project uses a fixed Lazomis clinical configuration of 40 audit criteria across cohort and sedation context, daily sedation plan, sedation target and scoring, analgesia and pain assessment, delirium, agitation and neurological assessment, sedation hold, reduction or awakening decision, ventilation, weaning, mobilisation and rehabilitation, safety monitoring and adverse effects, and escalation, handover and continuity. Data collection, dashboards, findings, improvement planning, re-audit and every output are included at no cost.

• Intensivists, anaesthetists and advanced critical care practitioners
• Critical care nurses, outreach nurses and clinical educators
• Critical care pharmacists and physiotherapists
• QI, patient safety and clinical governance leads, and trainees needing ARCP-ready evidence

• Measure whether a daily sedation review, sedation plan and sedation indication are documented
• Review documentation of target sedation level, actual sedation score and action when outside target
• Review analgesia, pain assessment, delirium screening and neurological assessment alongside sedation
• Review sedation hold, reduction or awakening decisions and documentation of safety exceptions
• Review the link between sedation and ventilation, weaning, mobilisation, handover and senior review
• Generate governance-ready and ARCP-ready evidence

• Anonymised case number, critical care setting, review period, reviewer role and data source
• Age band, ventilation and tracheostomy status, sedation indication, neuromuscular blockade and neurological indication
• Sedation scale used, sedation status against target, pain assessment method and delirium screening tool
• Sedation hold status, outcome, documented safety exception, restraint use and review requirements
• 40 fixed audit criteria (Yes / No / Not applicable)
• Free-text learning points

• Live dashboard
• Audit report (Word)
• Executive summary (Word)
• Excel workbook
• PowerPoint presentation
• Conference poster
• ARCP evidence summary

This ready-built project is developed using the guidance, standards and authoritative sources listed below, so you can see what is being measured and why. Lazomis QI does not publish or own this guidance, and inclusion here does not imply endorsement or approval by any of these organisations.

• Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and Intensive Care Society

  Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services (GPICS V3)(opens the original source in a new tab)

  National service standards for adult critical care, including sedation practice, daily review, multidisciplinary ward rounds and rehabilitation.

• Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine

  Sedation, scoring and management on critical care(opens the original source in a new tab)

  Best-practice and quality-improvement material on sedation assessment, sedation scoring and sedation management in critical care.

• Intensive Care Society

  Intensive Care Society clinical guidance and resources(opens the original source in a new tab)

  Professional guidance and resources on pain, agitation, sedation, delirium and rehabilitation in adult critical care.

• NICE

  CG103: Delirium — prevention, diagnosis and management in hospital and long-term care(opens the original source in a new tab)

  National guidance on delirium risk, screening and prevention, relevant where delirium assessment forms part of sedation review.

• NICE

  CG83: Rehabilitation after critical illness in adults(opens the original source in a new tab)

  Relevant where sedation, wakefulness, mobilisation and rehabilitation goals are linked in the daily critical care plan.

• Designed to use anonymised or pseudonymised audit identifiers.
• This tool supports, but does not replace, clinical judgement.
• Local policy, formulary and specialist advice should be followed.
• Organisations remain responsible for local governance arrangements.
• This tool supports clinical audit and quality improvement. It does not replace clinical judgement, local policy, critical care or anaesthetic decision-making, medicines safety checks, specialist advice or urgent escalation pathways.
• It does not provide sedative prescribing advice, dose recommendations, ventilation decisions, extubation decisions, or a decision on whether sedation should be reduced or held.
• Daily sedation reduction or hold may be inappropriate in specific clinical situations. Any decision should follow local policy and senior clinical judgement.
• Severe agitation, device removal risk, hypoxaemia, ventilator dyssynchrony, haemodynamic instability, seizures, raised intracranial pressure, severe distress, suspected withdrawal or delirium, adverse drug effects or safeguarding concern should be managed according to local escalation pathways.
• Local critical care sedation, analgesia, delirium, ventilation, weaning, neuromuscular blockade, neurological observation, restraint, end-of-life care, safeguarding and escalation policies should be followed.
• Use anonymous case identifiers only — never patient-identifiable information.

Supporting guidance from the Lazomis QI Resource Library. Authoritative clinical standards referenced by this project remain separate.

• Clinical GovernanceLeveraging Incident Themes for Quality Improvement and Patient SafetyThis guide helps NHS teams identify and analyse recurring incident themes, transforming reported safety events into practical quality improvement opportunities to enhance patient safety and system reliability.
• Clinical GovernanceIntegrating Quality Improvement into Clinical Governance FrameworksThis article explores the vital relationship between Quality Improvement (QI) and Clinical Governance within the NHS, demonstrating how they are two sides of the same coin when aiming for continuous, systematic improvement in patient care.
• Patient SafetyIntegrating Patient Safety and Quality Improvement: A Practical Guide for UK CliniciansThis guide explains the foundational principles of patient safety and quality improvement (QI) within the UK healthcare context, offering practical strategies for clinicians to enhance safety and improve care delivery.
• Patient SafetyHow to Select a Patient Safety Quality Improvement ProjectThis guide helps NHS teams identify and select patient safety quality improvement (QI) projects that are impactful, achievable, and aligned with organisational and national priorities. Learn how to move from identifying concerns to choosing a focused and measurable project.