This report is the first in a series that evaluates health care responsiveness to family violence. The evaluation project monitors how District Health Boards are responding to Ministry of Health initiatives aimed at increasing the responsiveness of the health system to the needs of women and children at risk from family violence. Three data collection methods are employed during the course of the evaluation. One of these includes hospital audits that have been, and will be, conducted on three occasions: a baseline audit (this report), followed by a 12-month follow-up (Koziol-McLain, et al, 2006), and a 30-month follow-up. These audits will contribute to a nationwide picture of family violence prevention programme development across Aotearoa New Zealand. The second data collection method includes key stakeholder interviews for the purpose of identifying enablers and barriers to institutional change in the area of family violence. The final data collection method will include focus groups. These will be conducted following the 12-month follow-up audit, and will contextualise the audit results. This report presents a nationwide audit of acute care public hospitals and documents a baseline level of system responsiveness to intimate partner violence and child abuse and neglect. Data was collected over the period November 2003 to July 2004 from 25 acute care public hospitals. A standardised audit process examined both system structures and healthcare delivery processes, including hospital policies and procedures, the physical and cultural environments, the training of staff, screening and safety assessment, documentation of family violence, intervention services, evaluation activities, and collaboration, both internally and externally. Baseline audit findings are presented separately for partner abuse and child abuse and neglect. It was found that most hospitals were in the early stages of developing a system response to partner abuse, and in the intermediate stage for responding to children at risk for abuse and neglect. The authors purport that, by working collaboratively with staff from each evaluation site, it is anticipated that the evaluation process will build competence for hospitals to sustain programme auditing and system refinement following completion of this research study. Study limitations and strengths are discussed.

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