Volume 4 Issue 4 October 2010 Welcome to Knowledge Matters Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting edition of Knowledge Matters! I want to draw your attention to a few important developments over the past couple of months. Firstly, September saw the publication of the first post-operative scores from the PROMs programme. This publication builds upon the published pre-operative data and for the first time provides us with information on the improvements that patients have themselves experienced post surgery. In the next issue of Knowledge Matters we will provide you with an overview of the results for South East Coast. If you can’t wait until then, you might want to have a look at the following link at the HES on-line website: http://www.hesonline.nhs.uk/Ease/servlet/ContentServer?siteID=1937&categoryID=1295 October saw the publication of the long awaited consultation document ‘An Information Revolution’. This is one of a series of documents published subsequent to the White Paper and describes how the Government intends to transform they way in which information is accessed, collected, analysed and used so that people are at the heart of health and social care services. One of the things that I was really encouraged to read is the strong emphasis on the importance of good data quality—this of course underpins the delivery of safe, effective and efficient health services. This consultation is open until 14th January 2011 and I would encourage you to read the strategy and provide feedback. All relevant documents can be accessed from the following website http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/ DH_120080 Finally, I want to make you aware of work which has now been initiated by the Department of Health to undertake a fundamental review of data returns. This review aims to discontinue returns of limited value and follows a commitment made in the White Paper earlier this year. The NHS Information Centre has set up a series of workshops focussing on a variety of data sets relevant to different clinical (and other) areas—these workshops provide the NHS with an opportunity to provide feedback on the utility of different data sets. A full list of workshop dates appears on page 19—again, I would encourage you to get involved with the review to ensure that the data burden on the NHS is reduced, but that the data sets which are valuable and important in measuring the quality and efficiency of services are maintained. Happy reading!
Inside This Issue : The Inpatient Variation in Expenditure Tool (IVET)
2
Introduction to SINAP
8
A3: Ask an Analyst
14
SPOKE heads north……...
3
The Activity Trend Explorer Tool
9
A comprehensive stroke service for East Kent
16
Department of Health South East update
4
Payment by Results
10
Analysis Ancient and Modern
18
The Safety Thermometer
6
Skills builder—forecasting
12
News
19
http://nww.sec.nhs.uk/QualiityObservatory Quality.Observatory@southeastcoast.nhs.uk