One of three nominations in the category “Excellence in Healthcare Information Management”, the National Benchmarker has been recognised for its ability to drive improvement in healthcare commissioning through the rigorous analysis of hospital activity data.
Howard Davis, the Audit Commission's PbR Benchmarking Manager, has lead the project for almost 3 years, and his drive and commitment have been central to its success. He is typically modest about his individual nomination for “Healthcare ICT Champion of the Year”.
“It is a real honour to be nominated for this award. But it isn't just about me, there's been a hugely talented team of people working really hard on putting the tool together and improving the way it works at every step. We have been very fortunate to have IPL's expertise on board since the very beginning.”
IPL's Jon Evans has been the Principal Consultant and Chief Architect on the National Benchmarker Project, working with the in-house IT team, since the Payment by Results Data Assurance Framework was established at the Audit Commission in 2006. During that time, he has been instrumental in helping to define the complex benchmarking methodology that sits behind the tool as well as leading the team of IPL software engineers during the phased development programme.
“In the early days of the project, I worked closely with the Commission's statisticians and health analysts to ensure we applied a formal approach to the requirements analysis. When you're dealing with the complex analysis of millions of records, you can't afford to take chances. I'm glad to see our efforts have paid off and the National Benchmarker is now providing huge benefit to the NHS. It has been a great team effort and I'm certain that IPL's strong relationship with the Audit Commission will continue for many years to come.”
Initially designed to target clinical coding audits, the National Benchmarker now has relevance far beyond data quality. It can be used to inform many areas of work including world class commissioning, service redesign, efficiency and productivity. The data warehouse that drives the tool contains in excess of 1 billion records covering both inpatient and outpatient activity and the analytical tools have over 2,000 registered users throughout the NHS. To find out more about the National Benchmarker, visit www.audit-commission.gov.uk/pbrbenchmarking.
E-Health Insider is the independent online news and information service dedicated to healthcare information and communications technology. Their annual awards are aimed at rewarding the brightest and best innovations and innovators across the healthcare ICT community. This year's winners will be announced on 20th October at an awards ceremony and gala dinner at the London Hilton Park Lane.
