IPL is assisting the Audit Commission with the development of advanced data assurance techniques and statistical analysis tools to support the Department of Health's Payment by Results (PbR) funding regime. These tools benchmark clinical outcomes data allowing stakeholders to compare relative performance of multiple NHS Trusts for each type of procedure. The programme has resulted in the largest and most complex dataset ever compiled by the Commission.
The Department of Health asked the Audit Commission to develop a Data Assurance Framework for Payment by Results (PbR) to support the accuracy of inpatient data. Approximately 12 million hospital admissions take place in England each year, accounting for over 50 million bed-days across 172 acute trusts. The accuracy of the data recorded for each hospital admission is imperative to ensure the smooth operation of the health service and under the PbR system, accurate data recording also directly affects the way trusts are reimbursed for the patient care they provide.
In a process designed to improve the data quality of over 250 million NHS records, IPL constructed a robust methodology to help target the clinical coding audits at those areas within each NHS trust where data quality was most likely to be an issue.
A senior IPL consultant was brought in under IPL's supply contract with OGCbuying.solutions to work closely with the Audit Commission's statistical experts and the Information Centre for Health and Social Care. During this time, the IPL consultant helped to identify suitable data feeds, develop a robust set of performance indicators and create a rigorous statistical process for identifying anomalous data. This involved acquiring a detailed understanding of health data and translating highly complex clinical coding and statistical theories into a set of clear, unambiguous business requirements.
IPL provided additional project management, leading a team of IPL developers to produce a data warehouse and associated tools to support the benchmarking process. IPL has continued to provide invaluable expertise throughout and as the second year of the audit programme approaches, the original consultant is helping to refine the methodology to ensure it remains at the cutting edge of health data analysis.
IPL Client Case Study is here.
Article in British Journal of Healthcare Computing & IT is here.
