Auditing of a medication administration record (MAR)

Quality assurance/auditing

• Staff auditing of all records, including MAR's, are an important part of a provider's quality assurance process and should be used, along with reviews, monitoring and training, to make and evidence improvements.
• A sample of service user MAR's should be audited at least once a month. The Council recommend at least 20% of all service user MAR's are audited by the provider, ensuring that each service user has their MAR's audited at least on a quarterly basis. However, it is best practice for providers to aim for auditing 100% of all MAR's for service users each month.
• The provider should use an audit 'crib sheet' as a tool for auditing and to evidence the checks that have been made against the audited MAR's.
• The auditor needs to check the MAR includes:
• Name, address and date of birth of service user.
• Pharmacy details.
• GP details (and district nurse if applicable).
• Start date of MAR.
• Correct medication details including medication name, strength, dose, form (capsule, tablet, cream).
• Clear instructions are included for when each dose/application is required E.g., am, lunch, teatime and bedtime.
• Clear special instructions are included e.g., maximum number of doses per day and minimum time between doses, under what circumstances the medication should be given such as before or after food.
• No gaps in signatures/dates/times/codes.
• All codes have notes against them in the note section/daily records and these are also checked for content/quality/appropriately recorded.
• The audit sheet needs to show:
• Name or identity of service user whose MAR's have been audited
• Name and signature of auditor
• Date of audit
• Date of MAR's checked
• What the auditor has checked (as recommended above)
• Any errors/issues
• Action required/taken/when and by whom

MAR forms

MAR (Template)

MAR Audit (Template)