NHS Comparators

Phil Collins, SUS Programme

Secondary Uses Service

Secondary Uses Service (SUS)

Objectives: Improve access to national data to support the business

requirements of the NHS and its stakeholders Provide a range of software tools and functionality that

enable users to analyse, report and present this data Be the single, authoritative and comprehensive source of

high quality data Provide a secure environment that maintains patient

confidentiality to national standards

NHS Comparators is part of the SUS Programme

NHS Comparators objectives

Respond to a DH request to CFH to develop a national system to support practice based commissioning (PBC)

Provide comparators of commissioning activity, referral patterns, outcomes, and QOF data – down to GP practice level

Bring it to market in under five months Have it easily accessible to all GP practices, as well as PCTs, SHAs,

Trusts, PHOs etc Be free to use Provide quarterly aggregated data ‘Signpost’ relative activity rather than performance management Not intended to replace local systems

Development

Work started in January 2007 with partners Northgate Information Solutions

Using a rapid application ‘Timebox’ methodology Design principles:

Web based access Summary level information Intuitive and easy to use without training Graphical style of presentation Built-in help and interpretation

Progress so far

First release: May 2007 a basic range of PBC Comparators and functions

Second release: September 2007 additional comparators, data, and functionality

Third/Fourth releases: January 2008 Introducing Provider comparators and 18 Week indicators

Fifth release: May 2008 (yesterday)

User population

Users by SHA

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PCT Users

GP Practiceusers

Overview of the system

Future developments

Future plans for the regular releases include: The introduction of needs weighting The introduction of Prescribing data Expansion of the range of comparators Further development of the DH PBC budget

setting support module Additional presentation functionality Additional interpretation and guidance

Endorsements

"Very useful source of data I would struggle to obtain otherwise as I work for a PBC consortium”

Endorsements

GP Shane Gordon, Tiptree Medical Centre in Colchester and chief executive of the Colchester PBC cluster, is analysing his practice's care for ENT patients after a new tool, developed by The IC and NHS Connecting for Health, showed it was referring higher than average numbers for outpatient appointments.

"There's a real hunger for comparative information and this is the only free access to national comparators of this type.” Shane Gordon said, “For me, it's the best bit of software to come out of the centre for a long time. It's simply laid out, easy to use and does what it says on the tin."

Endorsements

Asthma sufferers are breathing easier at Dr Ian Greaves’ Staffordshire practice - instead of many having to go to hospital for urgent care services – the services are coming to them.The practice and trust are also working together to improve patient safety for early discharge from hospital, after the Comparators tool highlighted a high number of practice patients being delayed in discharge.It also streamlined the practice’s aim to deliver a more community driven service, and discussions are now in progress for a workforce capacity of nurses. By integrating community, intermediate care and hospital nurses, hospital care at home will be enabled.

“The NHS Comparators site enabled us to map and plan how we could change from a hospital based to a community based service, “said Ian.“By involving the hospital we did not undermine them – the site really helped them see what we were about.”

EndorsementsHi,

I'm not sure what feedback you receive on the Comparators programme but you please pass on my thanks to all who are involved in developing this service. It is proving to be invaluable in taking forward practice based commissioning and we use it constantly.

The ability to set up reporting around PBC consortia and the work on QOF prevalence rates is particularly helpful.

You guys ought to get some sort of award.

Thanks again,

Leigh G

Leigh Garraway, Chief Officer Chiltern Vale Health Commissioning Consortium

NHS Comparators

Phil Collins, SUS Programme