Accurate, quality health data is key to planning changes in our local health services. Theresa Archibald and Steve Trigg explain how health data and performance indicators will be collated and distributed to ESyDoc and its practices to help improve services.
Information is currently being collated from figures from all twenty ESyDoc practices and a framework of performance indicators is in development. This information will support the development of the consortium and ultimately ensure that the EsyDoc Board has relevant, up-to-date knowledge with which to manage finance and the performance of the constituent practices.
Practices have recently received a data report from NHS Surrey; a pack which includes a new quarterly Practice Balanced Scorecard, designed as a developmental tool to be used by practices to identify potential areas for improvement.
The aim is for monthly reports to be presented to the ESyDoc Board which will include data on prescribing budgets/medicines management, acute activity/cost and, in due course, referral/demand management. Data on Community Services and Mental Health information will also be added when it is available from the PCT. The reports will include individual practice performance and also an aggregate for the whole ESyDoc area to enable the Board to understand the ‘big picture’. Where possible the data will be presented using the RAG (Red Amber Green) system and include reporting trend and comparison data.
There is currently a huge amount of data available. This includes SLAM (Service Level Agreement Monitoring) provided by the acute Trusts and the corresponding SUS (Secondary Uses Service) data, which is the “cleansed” version produced after data challenges raised by the PCT. HES (Hospital Episode Statistics) data is also available, but is considerably outdated by the time it is received. NHS Surrey has arranged a series of monthly meetings to address the data requirements of the emerging commissioning consortia.
Despite the volume of data available, what is clear is that the GP consortium is challenged with obtaining relevant and timely information from a dependable source - and then interpreting it appropriately - while always bearing in mind issues of data quality.
