NHS Comparators Is Updated For Commissioners And Providers After Early Success, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 23 Sep 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The NHS Information Centre and NHS Connecting for Health are launching two sets of new updates for the NHS Comparator in September and October 2008. This follows the initial success that has seen over 5,000 Commissioners, Practice Managers and other health professionals accurately see how they commission services and refer patients compared to other practices locally and nationally.

In September, new information and enhancements will enable NHS Commissioners to search by organisation, compare for the first time prescribing data, and view age profiles by practice. These and the previous comparators will be available with refreshed data including the complete 2007/08 year. Users will also be able to customise the information presented via their log-in on a personalised information dashboard.

This will be followed up in early October with comparators with new data on mean length of stay, percentage of patients discharged at first out patient appointment and overall bed day/costs, and also reported versus expected prevalence data from the QOF (quality and outcomes framework). Mental health comparators, including new out patients information per 1000 admissions and "did not attend" rates will also be accessible.

Leigh Garraway - Chief Officer, Chiltern Vale Health Commissioning Consortium, said: "NHS Comparators puts the information I need to assess local activity, costs and outcomes at my fingertips. This is empowering me to question important differences in care and make real time adjustments"

Mark Davies - Medical Director of the NHS Information Centre, said: "We are thrilled to be providing over 140 indicators and display datasets for key conditions and all outpatient referrals by GP practices in an easily accessible format for analysts, clinicians and managers to investigate performance by GP practice, PCT level or above. This is about giving providers the information to extract a greater understanding of the vital care they provide"

Notes

1. The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.

2. NHS Comparators has been developed as part of the SUS Programme, which is jointly delivered by The NHS Information Centre of health and social care and NHS Connecting for Health. http://www.connectingforheatlh.nhs.uk/sus or http://www.ic.nhs.uk/sus

3. The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information, for more information, please visit http://www.ic.nhs.uk/

4. NHS Comparators is available to all GP practices, Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts, NHS Trusts, and other relevant organisations. There are currently over 5,300 users of NHS Comparators.

5. To access to NHS Comparators you first need to request a log-in from The NHS Information Centre's Contact Centre by calling on 0845 300 6016 or email enquiries@ic.nhs.uk and ask for 'NHS Comparators log-in'. Existing users can log-in to NHS Comparators (requires nww access) http://nww.nhscomparators.nhs.uk/

6. More background information on NHS Comparators on http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/improving-data-collection-and-use/the-secondary-uses-service-sus/nhs-comparators

NHS Information Centre