PHIN delays publication of consultant performance measures.
PHIN today announced that its publication of new performance measures in April 2017 will focus on hospitals, with consultant-level performance measures to follow in 2018.
Many private hospitals, including all of the larger national groups and a number of NHS private patient units, have begun submitting data to PHIN in line with the requirements of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014. PHIN will begin publishing hospital-level performance measures on schedule, from 30 April 2017.
However, not all hospitals have yet submitted data and some data quality issues remain, as highlighted in PHIN’s recent Annual Report . The CMA has begun enforcement action to ensure all hospitals submit appropriate data participation where required. This lack of full compliance has an impact on the statistical reliability of measures to be published at consultant level.
As a result, PHIN has taken the decision to delay publication of performance measures by consultant until the data is sufficiently complete and robust. The CMA is aware of PHIN’s decision and recognises the importance of ensuring the integrity of data published.
Hospital-level measures to be published in April include comparative activity levels by procedure, lengths of stay, and patient satisfaction. Other measures, including adverse events rates and outcome measures, will follow.
Consultants will be invited to participate in data quality assurance later in 2017, and will work with hospitals to improve data quality.
“PHIN is committed to fully implementing the information improvements required by the CMA, and we will be launching our new website with hospital performance measures at the end of April as planned. However, the information we publish must be fair and based on accurate data, particularly where it is attributed to individual consultants. We will publish consultant performance only when we are confident that the data provided by hospitals supports that level of detail.
“The onus now is on hospitals to continue to improve the validity and accuracy of their data as we approach publication. Where hospitals are not yet participating, the CMA has taken important steps towards enforcement.”
Matt James, Chief Executive of PHIN
