Report Finds NHS Boards Recognise Importance of Data
NHS Boards are responding positively to data on surgical services, and using this information to help improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of patient care. That’s the key finding in a new report published today (Thursday) by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS). The report was created to describe how NHS Boards had responded to Surgical Profile information that had been issued to NHS Boards in Scotland by NHS QIS in collaboration with the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland (ISD).
A Surgical Profile is a tool - consisting of a package of comparative clinical indicators (ie data) on local surgical services - that an NHS Board can use to help it improve the delivery and outcomes of patient care – by identifying potential areas for attention, and also areas of good practice. The data in the Surgical Profile cannot be used in isolation to make reliable external judgements about the quality of patient care, but they can certainly be used locally to stimulate reflection on clinical practice. Data included rates of mortality, unplanned readmission to hospital, post-operative deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism, and post-operative infection.
Each NHS Board was asked to respond formally to its Surgical Profile, and a clinically-led national panel assessed how the data were being used across the country. Of the 15 NHS Boards that received data, 14 provided a formal response to the profile, explaining how the data had been considered and how the exercise could contribute to wider efforts to improve patient care. The one NHS Board that did not respond formally expressed their disappointment at not being able to provide information within the project’s timescales and explained that the Surgical Profile will be taken up locally with clinicians.
The panel concluded that all responses from NHS Boards provided evidence that:
i) the data in the Surgical Profile had been reviewed;
ii) areas where data appeared to differ markedly from the national average had been considered;
iii) plans to follow up any issues highlighted by the profile had been made.
The Surgical Profile project will form part of an ongoing programme of work aimed at advancing the collation and consideration of data on surgery in Scotland, and consideration of how this information is used to facilitate improvements to the delivery and outcomes of surgical care. NHS QIS will also commence work to ascertain whether the Surgical Profiles approach should be broadened to cover other aspects of patient care (eg medical specialties), to further support NHS Boards in their efforts to provide safe and effective clinical care.
Professor Peter Stonebridge, Professor of Vascular Surgery at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, and chair of the Surgical Profiles Design Group, said: “At all levels within the NHS, from individual clinicians to the service as a whole, there should be accountability for the quality of care delivered to patients. The Surgical Profile gives the NHS Boards information which can be used to assess surgical care within their hospitals. It helps to identify where things appear to be working well, where further local investigation may be needed and also where improvements may be possible. It’s time to put behind us the days of giving the public potentially misleading ‘league tables’, and enter into a more informed public debate about how data can be used to help improve the health of the people of Scotland.”
Dr Harpreet Kohli, Medical Advisor at NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, said: “This first cycle of the Surgical Profile project has made a valuable contribution to supporting more consistent and influential use of data about surgical care. In compiling the report, the panel found an enthusiastic support from clinicians (including surgeons and anaesthetists) and NHS Boards.”
Editors Note:
- To access Surgical Profiles for individual NHS Boards visit www.indicators.scot.nhs.uk/SP_2006/Main.html - individual Surgical Profiles will not be available to the media at the launch.
- NHS QIS has been established to lead in improving the quality of care and treatment delivered by NHSScotland. To do this it sets standards and monitors performance, and provides NHSScotland with advice, guidance and support on effective clinical practice and service improvements.
Media Contact: Stephen Ferguson on 07779 329 689