Knowledge Matters Volume 1 Issue 4

Knowledge Management Team, South East Coast Strategic Health Authority Knowledge.management@southeastcoast.nhs.uk

INSIDE THIS

BUMPER ISSUE 1

Welcome

2

New team member

2

SPC

2

Analyst network dates 2008

3

QOF achievement tool

4

Coding Corner

4

Vacancies

4

18 weeks tools

5

A3: Ask an Analyst

7

Website

8 9 10 11 12 12

News and updates Skills builder – Mean, Median and Mode

December 2007 Volume 1 Issue 4

Welcome to Knowledge Matters

By Samantha Riley

Festive greetings to you all and welcome to a Christmas bumper edition.

As well as the usual articles, Kiran provides us with a preview of the Knowledge Management website which will go live in January and will be a major step forward in enabling us to share learning and tools across South East Coast. Andrew Wilk introduces a new regular article – Coding Corner and announces the establishment of a special interest coding network early next year to support this critical area of work.

The specifications for the three training modules I referred to in the last issue have been developed and details will be available on our website.

The first statistics course has already been run and another is planned for early in the New Year. If you would like further details, as always please e-mail knowledge.management@southeastcoast.nhs.uk Dates have been set for the three analyst networks for the whole of 2008. These meetings are a great opportunity to find out up to date information about national developments, alert the SHA to issues that need to be resolved and share knowledge, learning and tools. All analysts within South East Coast are eligible to attend, I would ask that people register interest with the team so that we are aware of the likely numbers attending.

Call for articles Creating Links – The IC

Merry Christmas and very best wishes for 2008!

Useful links Christmas Quiz Samantha Riley

Knowledge Matters

Page 2

SPC …

Welcome to ….

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Owen joined the Knowledge Management team on 19th November as Performance and Planning Analyst.

Rebecca will take over from Fiona Cantrell in supporting Vital Signs and planning processes and along with Kate Cheema will jointly cover performance.

Rebecca joins us from the Commissioning Department of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore.

Rebecca has previously worked at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust and has worked in the NHS for 6 years.

Analyst network 2008 Analyst network meetings have been arranged for 2008. Dates and venues appear below: Sussex (all 10.30 – 12.00, Lecture Theatre, Sussex Education Centre) 17th January 13th March 9th May 15th July 12th September 12th November Surrey (all held in the Boardroom, York House) 11th January (13.30 – 15.00) 11th March (10.30-12.00) 6th May (13.30 – 15.00) 16th July (13.30 – 15.00) 9th September (13.30 – 15.00) 11th November (13.30 – 15.00) Kent (all 10.30 – 12.00, Boardroom 2, Preston Hall) 8th January 19th March 13th May 22nd July 16th September 17th November Attendance is open to all analysts within South East Coast.

To receive further details and to register interest please e-mail Knowledge.management@southeastcoast.nhs.uk

Statistical Process Control, As a way of achieving a goal, Measures the change From normal to strange And enables a view of the whole SPC can help understand How things could better be planned It can disprove presumptions, But also affirm assumptions And bring improvement closer to hand.

A process which is well-defined, And measured over a period of time, Will show variation, And the right information Will point to the causes behind.

Variation’s a terrible thing, The way a system can swing, From mean to extreme Is a an awful regime For us to be experiencing.

The upper control limit will be set, (And the lower - lest we forget), The average is shown In the middle of the zone, And the data’s ready to interpret.

Variation is special or normal, Or in words a bit more informal, One is unique, An aberration or freak, The other is much more conformal.

Special cause shows lack of control, And that things have taken their toll, The system will fail It’s in the detail, Unless we take charge of the whole.

When we know what the causes are, And the plans needed to be back on par, We can implement changes To lower the ranges And see how were doing so far.

If the plans have worked out okay, And the changes are here to stay, The limits will narrow, Right down to the marrow, And variation will be kept at bay.

Do you have something you would like to contribute to Knowledge Matters? Please contact us!

Knowledge Matters

Page 3

Quality and Outcomes (QOF) Achievement Tool

By Fiona Cantrell, Royal West Sussex NHS Trust

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a voluntary annual reward and incentive programme for all GP surgeries in England, detailing practice achievement results.

The QOF framework measures 4 key areas: • Clinical domain • Organisational domain • Patient care experience domain • Additional services domain QOF was introduced as part of the new General Medical Services (GMS) contract on 1 April 2004.

QOF is measured by QMAS, a national IT system developed by NHS Connecting for Health (CfH). QMAS ensures consistency in the calculation of quality achievement and disease prevalence, and is linked to payment systems.

PCT Total QOF Breakdown - Clinical Indicators at March 2007

The QOF achievement tool has been created in MS Excel to provide an overview of each PCTs achievement across the QOF clinical domains within NHS South East Coast. The tool has been populated with data from QMAS as at end of March for 2006/7 fiscal year, but can easily be populated with practice level data for comparison across practices within PCTs.

The practice can produce a register of patients with hypothyroidism

100.00%

Percentage Achievement SEC Average

98.00%

96.00%

94.00%

92.00%

90.00%

88.00%

86.00%

£18,000

Available Points Achieved Pounds†

£16,000

140

£12,000 100

£10,000 80

£8,000 60

£6,000

40

£4,000

20

WEST SUSSEX PCT

WEST KENT PCT

SURREY PCT

MEDWAY PCT

Data can be viewed at clinical indicator level using tables and charts which show earned points and pounds against those available and percentage achievement against the SEC average.

£14,000

120

HASTINGS & ROTHER PCT

Achieved Points

160

EASTERN & COASTAL KENT PCT

£20,000

180

EAST SUSSEX DOWNS & WEALD PCT

The practice can produce a register of patients with hypothyroidism

BRIGHTON AND HOVE CITY TEACHING PCT

84.00%

PCT Total QOF Breakdown - Clinical Indicators at March 2007

£2,000 £0 WEST SUSSEX PCT

WEST KENT PCT

SURREY PCT

MEDWAY PCT

HASTINGS & ROTHER PCT

EASTERN & COASTAL KENT PCT

EAST SUSSEX DOWNS & WEALD PCT

BRIGHTON AND HOVE CITY TEACHING PCT

0

PCT Total QOF Breakdown - Clinical Indicators at March 2007 Admission rate, indirectly standardised by age and sex. Source NHS Comparators tool, rolling 2006/07 at end Q3.

Achieved Points

Available Points

Admission Rate‡

National Admission Rate

1.4

16000

Admission rates from the NHS comparator tool (https://nww.nhscomparators.nhs.uk) are included for comparison against achievement of points for certain clinical areas (COPD, CHD, Asthma and Diabetes).

Although this is by no means a direct comparison, it does provide a high level picture of how GP practice behavior influences acute activity levels.

14000

1.2

12000

1 10000

0.8 8000

0.6 6000

0.4 4000

0.2

2000

0

Is there something that you wish you knew more about? To suggest future topics for knowledge matters contact the team

WEST SUSSEX PCT

WEST KENT PCT

SURREY PCT

MEDWAY PCT

HASTINGS & ROTHER PCT

EASTERN & COASTAL KENT PCT

EAST SUSSEX DOWNS & WEALD PCT

BRIGHTON AND HOVE CITY TEACHING PCT

To obtain a copy of the QOF Achievement tool either to populate with your own local data or to view 2006/7 results, email your request to: knowledge.management@southeastcoast.nhs.uk

0

Knowledge Matters

Page 4

Andrew’s Coding Corner

In 2006/07 the following numbers of people were admitted to South East Coast Acute trusts with: Z733 - 62 Z736 - 5 Z738 - 53 Z739 - 329

Vacancies ….

Are you a highly skilled analyst looking for a new challenge as a key member of a vibrant, professional, results focused analytical team? Do you have well developed interpretation skills and are you able to explain the numbers as well as produce them? Are you passionate about making sure that information drives decision making? If so, two great opportunities exist for you…

The SHA Knowledge Management Team currently has two vacancies. One is for a permanent Management Information Support Analyst and the other is a fixed term 7 month opportunity to cover Kate Cheema’s maternity leave.

Further details can be found on the NHS jobs website.

18 Weeks Tools The 18 weeks programme at the SHA has several standard reports set up to help inform 18 weeks performance monitoring and trend analysis. We are happy to share any of these with SEC organisations, some of which can be refreshed centrally for all SEC organisations.

Clinical coding is now centre stage: HRGs, payment by results and PbR assurance, practice based commissioning, clinical audit – all of these depend on accurate clinical coding. Everyone needs to be able to speak the language of coding and classification in today’s NHS and the SHA Knowledge Management team firmly believe in promoting a wider understanding of coding schemas. Given the importance of hospital cleanliness, for example, are you aware of the conventions for coding hospital acquired infection (Y95 Nosocomial condition) and post-operative complications of surgical and medical care (T80-T88)?

Coding Corner brings to you some of the more “interesting” areas of OPCS4 and ICD10 coding schemas, starting with this issue some which NHS managers might identify with and are worthy of Andrew’s first coding T-shirt: General Life Difficulty. In future issues I will be wearing different T-shirts including Z56.3 “Stressful Work Schedule”, and Z56.4 “Discord with Boss and Workmates”. Ring any bells?

I will be establishing a special interest Coding Network early next year to support this vital area of work.

If you are interested in being involved, please e-mail me at Andrew.wilk@southeastcoast.nhs.uk

Do you have something you would like to contribute to Knowledge Matters? Please contact us!

The suite so far….

• Commissioner based specialtylevel performance report • Provider based specialty-level performance report • Data completeness report • Weekly PTL performance report commissioner/provider • Weekly active PTL commissioner tool • Weekly PTL performance reportSHA aggregate by provider • SHA comparative report In development……

• PTL metrics report • Addition of non-admitted PTL data to existing reports For further information, please contact Katherine.cheema@southeastcoast.nhs. uk

Knowledge Matters

Page 5

A3: ASK AN ANALYST If you have a question for the team please e-mail: Knowledge.management@southeastcoast.nhs.uk Adam Cook explains conditional formatting………

People often ask me about tables – “Adam”, they say, “it’s all well and good having these tables, but rows of numbers aren’t always so easily understandable. Maybe if there was some colour coding according to pre-defined criteria then that would an extra level of intelligence to the table”.

“Good thinking”, I say, “What you want to do is some kind of RAG status thing.”

“Yeah, that would be great”, they reply, “but then I have to change the colours every month and it gets confusing”.

“Ahhh”, I say, nodding sagely, “What you want to use is conditional formatting.”

“Conditional formatting, Adam? Tell me more!”

“Well in Excel it is possible to change the formatting of a cell depending on the cell’s content, and if the content changes then the formatting changes too – and it’s really simple to do. The fifth menu along in the excel menu bar is “Format”, click on this and towards the bottom of the options is one called “Conditional Formatting”, choose this.

An intimidating looking dialog box will pop up – do not worry it isn’t as bad as it looks. This is where we specify what we want the cell to look like.

Let’s take the A&E 4-hour target as an example we may want every over 98% to be green, everyone between 97.5 and 98% to be amber and everyone less than 97.5%to be red.

From the first box choose Cell Value is (this is the default option).

The next box has a default of between, there are other options available, the drop down box choose is greater than.

Then, in the next box type 98%.

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Now you’ve set the criteria we need to set the formatting –at t he moment you should see a white box say No Format Set next to this is a button labelled Format… click this.

Another box will open – this has three tabs at the top – Font, Border, and Patterns – we can change any of these three things. In this instance we want to colour code the box so we need to choose patterns.

When you do this the standard Excel colour palette will be seen from this choose whichever shade of green is most appropriate, and click OK. This takes you back to the dialog box, and where once there was a white box there should be a green box with a choice selection of the alphabet contained therein.

The next step is to set the amber – to do this click the button labelled Add>> at the bottom of the dialog box. A second option will pop up, and just do as before this time keeping between as the criteria and entering 97.5% and 98% as the options, then selecting a shade of yellow as the pattern colour.

Repeat again for the Red version choosing is less than and 97.5% as the value. (NB. There is a maximum limit of three conditional formats that can be set). Once you’re happy with this click OK and Hey Presto! The cells are magical formatted how the need to be.

To apply this conditional formatting to more than one cell, either have all the necessary cells selected when setting the conditional formatting, or else use the Format Painter button ( ), this allows you to copy the formatting from one area of a spread sheet to another, click on the cell you want to copy click the format painter button and then select the area you want to apply the formatting to.”

“Thanks, Adam – that’s so easy, and I always wondered what that paint brush button did.”

“No problem – of course you can do much more complex things, like nested if statements and the like as your options, but we don’t need to go into that now.

Have a play and see what you can do – you’re not going to break anything!”

Do you have something you would like to contribute to Knowledge Matters? Please contact us!

Knowledge Matters

Page 7

Coming soon ………

By Kiran Cheema, Knowledge Management Team Oh no not another NHS website!

Well, why have we done it?

The purpose of the Site is to facilitate information delivery across organisation in NHS South East Coast through effective communication and easy to access resources.

We want to share the work of the team: Management Information Dashboards, Tools, Models and policy information.

We want to provide discussion forums support for colleagues in information analysis, share best practice in analytics information presentation and support development of analytical skills across information sectors in the SEC.

and and and the NHS

This Site is very much being created to support you, so if you have any suggestions to improve the site or any features you would like to see added or if you want to contribute article information or tools to download then please get in contact.

We hope you find this site useful and informative, and to give you a taste of what to expect we have some screen shots of the site in development.

The site features will include fully working discussion forums, an events calendar, a downloads section that can be updated and added to by users and custom user contact lists to facilitate communications.

We have all worked very hard to get the site up and running and it should be available to all NHS Staff on an N3 (nww) connection to use from early in the New Year!

If you happen to be visiting the SHA before the site goes live, please feel free to come and see us and the Team will be happy to let you have a demo!

Is there something that you wish you knew more about? To suggest future topics for knowledge matters contact the team

Knowledge Matters

Page 8

News and Updates…

Better Care, Better Value indicators

New Index of Multiple Deprivation published The new Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007 (IMD 2007) has just been published. IMD is a Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA) level measure of multiple deprivation, and is made up of seven LSOA level domain indices. The IMD brings together 37 different indicators which cover specific aspects or dimensions of deprivation: Income, Employment, Health and Disability, Education, Skills and Training, Barriers to Housing and Services, Living Environment and Crime. These are weighted and combined to create a single deprivation score for each small area in England. This allows each area to be ranked relative to one another according to their level of deprivation. Further information is available from the link below. The next edition of Knowledge Matters will contain a specific article on IMD. http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/neighbour hoodrenewal/deprivation/deprivation07/

Vital signs The new planning round for 2008-11 is about to start - the timetable for SEC “Vital Signs” submissions is given below.

Full year HES 2006/7 released Full year HES for 2006 / 07 has now been released.

Selected extracts are available online at www.hesonline.nhs.uk in both PDF and MS Excel formats. If you have a particular request that is not covered by the website, the SHA does have full online access and will endeavour to be able to provide the required information. Please contact Simon Berry (simon.berry@southeastcoast.nhs.uk) for further details. Outpatient data for 2006/7 will be available early in the New Year.

Development of DH Patient experience tool

14th Jan 2007

First Cut Plans to SHA

18th Jan 2007

SEC Validation/Feedback on First Cut

4th Feb 2007

Second Cut Plans to SHA

8th Feb 2007

SEC Validation/Feedback Second Cut Third Cut Plans to SHA SEC Sign Off

25th Feb 2007 28th Feb 2007

Q2 information is due to be published imminently (http://www.productivity.nhs.uk/).

The SHA has developed a Better Care, Better Value dashboard which will be updated on a quarterly basis and posted on our website.

The dashboard provides both an organisational view and a metric view and provides graphical representation of progress against each indicator and also the quarterly productivity opportunity. Once Q2 data is published, the tool will be updated and distributed. For further information on the forthcoming too please contact adam.cook@southeastcoast.nhs.uk

on

All data will be collected via the Unify2 website and it is anticipated that final technical guidance will be published on Unify on 7th January.

Draft guidance was circulated to planning leads at the SHA workshop on 17th Dec. A dedicated planning mailbox, planning@southeastcoast.nhs.uk has been set up and we are asking that PCTs email details of their submissions to this address as well as uploading to Unify.

Rebecca Owen is the performance analyst leading on Vital Signs and can be contacted on 01293 778832, email rebecca.owen@southeastcoast.nhs.uk

The Department of Health has developed a patient experience tool which South East Coast and London SHAs have been given an opportunity to comment on.

Over time, the intention is that this tool will pull together all patient survey data into one place.

Currently, the tool is populated with the following surveys: Inpatient (2006/7), outpatient (2004/5) and A&E (2004/5).

Feedback needs to be provided to the Department of Health by the end of January 2008. If you are interested to obtaining a copy of the draft tool, please contact samantha.riley@southeastcoast.nhs.uk Clinical Metrics Development Programme Two meetings of the stroke and dementia sub groups have now taken place and with the support of The Information Centre for Health and Social Care, work is underway to populate a range of metrics for pilot areas within South East Coast. Work on the development of COPD metrics will commence in February. For further details and to receive a regular summary of progress for each area, please contact: Adam.cook@southeastcoast.nhs.uk (Dementia) Simon.berry@southeastcoast.nhs.uk (Stroke) Samantha.riley@southeastcoast.nhs.uk (COPD)

Do you have something you would like to contribute to Knowledge Matters? Please contact us!

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Page 9

Skills Builder: Mean, Median, Mode & Standard Deviation ‘Measure of central tendency’; grand words for basically finding the middle of a set of data. We hear about measures of central tendency all the time: ‘average length of stay’, ‘average house price’, ‘median house price’, ‘median graduate income’….. the list is endless.

But which measure is the correct measure? And come to that, how do we calculate them?

In this article we shall review what these measures mean and when best to use them. We will also look briefly at a measure of spread, standard deviation, as an additional weapon in the armoury of descriptive measures that can help us understand our data better.

Calculating mean, median and mode is very simple. Box 1 to the left gives the basic definitions.

However, which measure we choose can give very different answers to the central value in any given data set, as shown in figure 1 to the right.

BOX 1:

The mean is best used for what is called interval data, that is values taken from a continuous scale where each interval is equal (so measures of height, weight, age etc.) or has an arithmetically defined relationship. However, mean is influenced by extreme values which can give a skewed idea of the central tendency.

FIGURE 1:

Mean: 5 Median: 4 Mode: 7

Participant 1

Value 7

2

2

3

7

4

1

5

2

6

9

7

1

8

6

9

3

The median is not influenced by extreme values so can give a better 10 7 idea of central tendency where there are known outliers, such as 11 8 house prices or salary data. It can also be used for ordinal data 12 3 (numerical scales but without an arithmetically defined relationship 13 6 14 2 between points (e.g. A ‘North of London’ scale with Watford as 1, 15 4 Birmingham as 2 and Glasgow as 3). The median will be able to give a good indication of ‘typicality’ but will not necessarily reflect the whole range of data as the mean would. An alternative where you have outliers is to use trimmed means where you exclude extreme values (e.g. for average LoS, you might want to exclude low volume PCT providers) but this can have implications for overall results and as such would need good evidence to support it. The mode is best used for describing nominal or named data (such as favourite colours!) but can also be used for other types of data. There can be more than one mode in a dataset (bimodal), which can suggest that you have two groups with distinct characteristics within your dataset.

Which measure to use is really a judgement call based on the type of data you have, and what you want to do with it.

How representative of the whole dataset is our measure of central tendency? To what extent is it a good predictor of any given point in the dataset?

To answer these questions, we want to look at some kind of measure of how far any given point deviates from our central tendency. Probably the most common of these is based on the mean, and is called ‘standard deviation’.

Is there something that you wish you knew more about? To suggest future topics for knowledge matters contact the team

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Page 10

Standard deviation is again, a very grand term for a very simple concept: the average deviation from the mean of any given point, thus a measure of spread of the data. Box 2 outlines the steps to calculation of standard deviation and why we make them. Of course its much easier in Excel, just use the worksheet function =STDEV() !!

The higher the SD the greater the dispersal of values around the mean, so the less reliable the mean is in BOX 2: predicting any given value. If we look at the different lines Five steps to calculation: in figure 2, ignoring the pink line, we see three normally distributed lines, each with the same mean but totally 1. Express each data value as a deviation different normal distributions. from the mean i.e: subtract the mean from it.

2.

Square all the deviation scores individually (multiply each score by itself, bearing in mind that the square of a negative number will be positive)

3.

Add up the squared values

4.

Divide by the number of cases or observations (N)

5.

Square root the result

OK, why do we do each step then……….?

1.

What we want to assess is the extent to which the mean is a good predictor of what any given value will be, so we need a measure of how far any given point deviates from the mean.

2.

We want to give more weight to deviations further from the mean which is what squaring them achieves- the higher the variation from the mean, the greater the value of the square

For the red line, the standard deviation is 0.2, FIGURE 2: which means that, on average, any given value will deviate from the mean of zero by plus/minus 0.2 units, thus making the mean fairly robust as a representative of the dataset. The blue line has a standard deviation of 5 units, so there is much more scope for variance around the mean. The standard deviation can be used in many applications, probably the most pertinent of which is confidence intervals which will be covered in further skills builder articles.

Call for articles

Have you developed a tool, product or methodology that you would like to share with colleagues across South East Coast?

3.

Then we add these up to get the total deviation score for the dataset but…..

4.

……the size of this will obviously depend to an extent on the number of cases/observations in the dataset, so we express it as a rate per case by dividing by the number of cases/observations (N)

Are you involved in a programme of work which you would like to share with information colleagues within South East Coast?

We usually require a measure of dispersal which is in the same units as the mean, which is why we take the square root.

We are more than happy to provide editorial and presentational support and guidance.

5.

Graduate biographies

Are you an expert in a specialist technical area that others could benefit from??

If so, why not write an article for Knowledge Matters??

Please e-mail us with a brief description of the article that you would like to write or give one of the team a call!

Work is underway to target a range of audiences to encourage consideration of a career in the NHS as an information analyst. One of the key audiences will be local Universities and the intention is to target careers fairs and arrange awareness raising sessions for undergraduates. To support these events, we would like to have a range of biographies completed by graduates now working in the NHS as an information analyst. A template has been developed to record biographies and this can be obtained by e-mailing knowledge.management@southeastcoast.nhs.uk If any of you would be willing to provide us with biographies, we would be most grateful.

Do you have something you would like to contribute to Knowledge Matters? Please contact us!

Knowledge Matters

Page 11

Creating Links – The Information Centre for Health and Social Care

By Tim Straughan, Chief Executive, Information Centre for Health and Social Care Providing high quality health and social care is the core aim of the NHS, and in order for it to achieve this it needs good quality information to help inform decision making.

This is where The Information Centre for health and social care (The IC) can help. By supplying timely, relevant and high quality data to the NHS, The IC aims to support staff by providing a range of information and tools to help improve services and ensure patients receive the best care possible.

As England’s authoritative and independent source of health and social care information, The IC has a key role in the evolution of the NHS. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to collect data that has a positive effect on health and social care.

After the IC has collected data, it analyses it and converts it into useful information for clinicians, managers, policy-makers, patients, regulators, researchers and members of the public, It never underestimates the importance of front-line staff and is proactive and responsive – developing new data collections, software and tools as soon as they are needed.

A relatively new organisation established in 2005, The IC is still increasing its own awareness, but its products and services are familiar to most. These include: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Each year The IC collects details of more than 14 million episodes of patient care in NHS hospitals in England, including information on admissions and time waited for operations.

As the data is at patient record level, HES provides a rich source of detail for clinicians and managers. It also supports activities like accountability to Parliament and performance monitoring, including the Healthcare Commission’s Annual Health Check and performance rating indicators for Acute Trusts, Primary Care Trusts and Mental Health Trusts.

“England’s authoritative & independent source of health and social care information.”

“Each year The IC collects details of more than 14 million episodes of patient care”

Secondary Uses Service (SUS) Jointly developed by The IC and NHS Connecting for Health, the Secondary Uses Service is the single repository of person and care event level data relating to the NHS care of patients, which is used for management and clinical purposes other than direct patient care. These secondary uses include healthcare planning, commissioning, public health, clinical audit, benchmarking, performance improvement, research and clinical governance.

Clinical Audits As well as producing a wide range of statistical publications every year, The IC is the single biggest provider of clinical audits to the NHS. It carries out 18 audits each year in areas like heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and in 2006-7 increased average participation across all audits by 30 per cent. Most audits are funded by the Healthcare Commission and play a crucial role in the development of patient care; allowing clinicians and trusts to compare their performance and outcomes against best practice and assess themselves against national guidelines and agreed clinical standards.

As the NHS continues to progress through a period of significant change, The IC itself is evolving to best support these changes. While taking on wider responsibility for information within the health and social care sector, we aim to strengthen our role in information governance, quality and independence. Above all, we aim to provide new levels of useful, timely information to help those vital to ensuring a successful NHS; its staff.

“The IC is the single biggest provider of clinical audits to the NHS”

For more information visit www.ic.nhs.uk Is there something that you wish you knew more about? To suggest future topics for knowledge matters contact the team

Knowledge Matters

Page 12

This Issues Useful Links …

Open University Free Learning Materials

Weekly SUS Service Tracker reports

The OU have made free learning materials available on their OpenLearn site. New modules are added each month. New modules for December 2007 include ‘Working with charts, graphs and tables’. Go to the home page to access learning modules or ‘remix’ them for training purposes: http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/

Amongst the many useful things published under the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) / Connecting for Health (CfH) banner, there are some which qualify for the “really really useful” label for information people, and one of these is the enticingly named Weekly SUS Service Tracker Reports to be found here on the SUS Whats New page http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsands ervices/sus/whatsnew

18 weeks statistical methods & guidance Containing all you want to know and wished you didn’t about collection methods, clock rules, FAQs and data completeness calculations for 18 weeks. http://www.performance.doh.gov.uk/rtt/definitions NHS Institute Opportunity Locator Tool link The Opportunity Locator is a data tool to support the commissioning priorities of local health communities.

This data tool has been designed to give you and your community relevant and useful data in an easily accessible format to support the 'care closer to home' agenda. The tool should prompt you to start thinking of "how" and "why" your organisation might differ from others and to support commissioning priorities for health communities. This tool is not designed and should not be used for directly comparing PCT performance. http://www.institute.nhs.uk/opportunitylocator/

Knowledge matters is the newsletter of NHS South East Coast’s Knowledge Management Team, to discuss any items raised in this publication, for further information or to be added to our distribution list, please contact: Knowledge Matters C/O Knowledge Management Team NHS South East Coast York House 18-20 Massetts Road Horley,Surrey, RH6 7DE Phone: 01293 778899 E-mail: Knowledge.management@southeastcoast.nhs.uk To contact a team member: firstname.surname@southeastcoast.nhs.uk

Here you will find refreshed each week a downloadable Excel file with the latest record counts successfully passing SUS landing stage for every organisation in England (including Independent Sector) monthly for each of the last few years for each cds-type including admitted patient care, outpatient attendances, delivery episodes, A&E, and elective admission lists. This gives you the best possible insight into dataflows for a range of activity for your own and neighbouring organisations, and therefore identifies issues like duplicates and missing data.

Full year HES 2006/7 released Full year HES for 2006 / 07 has now been released.

Selected extracts are available online at www.hesonline.nhs.uk in both PDF and MS Excel formats. If you have a particular request that is not covered by the website, the SHA does have full online access and will endeavour to provide the required information. Please contact Simon Berry (simon.berry@southeastcoast.nhs.uk) for further details. Outpatient data for 2006/7 should be available early in the New Year.

Christmas Quiz……

As it’s the festive season, the Knowledge Management Team has devised an on-line quiz to test your technical knowledge.

Prizes will be awarded for the entries obtaining the highest points score. A tie-breaker question will be used if required.

The quiz can be accessed at the following address http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ZBCQ1OpOazzv 1pkVb3XWvw_3d_3d The closing date for entries is Friday 18th January.

Lucky prize winners will be notified at the end of January with their names published in the February issue of Knowledge Matters.

Good luck!

Do you have something you would like to contribute to Knowledge Matters? Please contact us!