Improvement of data quality - RCP iLab
The RCP Health Informatics Unit's iLab in Swansea explored the clinical uses of routine data and highlighted existing issues surrounding the collection and clinical validation of routine data.
Analyses of consultant-level data are becoming more commonplace, and may be provided by hospital trusts or by external benchmarking companies such as Dr Foster Intelligence and CHKS.
In the course of the iLab project we produced guidance and answers to the questions clinicians most commonly ask when regarding such data, along with worked examples, a glossary and ten tips for good note keeping practice to ensure accurate clinical coding. English and Welsh versions reflect subtle differences in the way data are handled in the two countries.
Our guides are designed to be used in conjunction with analyses of consultant data. Some examples are on this website as well as a full methodology that enables trust information staff to produce and present clinically useful analyses using their own trust's routine data.
All these documents are now available for download below. Copies of the guide for clinicians are also available in print, through the support of the Information Centre for Health and Social Care, from the Publications Department of the Royal College of Physicians.
A new project in 2008 will evaluate the use of routinely collected data in comparison with two designed audits.