Profiles
The aim of medical and surgical profiles is to stimulate reflective clinical practice and facilitate improvements in the care of patients, by making good use of existing Scotland-wide datasets.
Organisations/teams that provide clinical care cannot always guarantee good clinical outcomes for their patients. However, they should know what these outcomes are, and also use such information to reflect on - and guide improvements to - the services they provide for their populations.
The profiles present a range of data about the medical and surgical care provided in Scottish hospitals. Each NHS board is responsible for reviewing, and where necessary acting upon, its own data - and local and expert knowledge needs to be drawn upon to meaningfully interpret the data.
They have been developed in close collaboration with a number of clinical specialty groups in Scotland, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow are also linked in to the project.
The profiles support the Healthcare Quality Strategy for NHSScotland, which itself emphasises the critically important role of data/measurement in driving improvements in patient care.
Medical Profiles
The first medical profile was made available to NHS Boards on 15th March 2012 and builds on a methodology developed for the surgical profiles project of which three cycles have been completed since 2006.
The medical profiles project is a collaborative between Information Services Division and Healthcare Improvement Scotland aimed at encouraging improvements in clinical care by making best use of existing Scotland-wide data sources. The medical profile comprises of a suite of clinical indicators about the medical care provided by an NHS board and its hospitals. It is a tool designed to be interpreted and used locally by those providing patient care in order to stimulate reflection on clinical services; to help them understand where services are working well and to identify opportunities for improving patient care.
Integral to the process is an ongoing dialogue with each NHS Board, facilitated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, about how they are interpreting and using the data locally.
Further information on the medical profiles project can be found at The Medical Profiles Project.
Surgical Profiles
This is a collaborative project led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Information Services Division, with support from NHS Boards, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow, and a number of clinical specialty groups.
The aim of the surgical profiles project is to encourage improvements in surgical care by making best use of existing Scotland-wide data sources. The surgical profile itself comprises of a suite of clinical indicators about the surgical care provided by an NHS Board and its hospitals. It is a tool designed to be interpreted and used locally, by those providing surgical care, in order to stimulate reflection on surgical services, and in doing so to identify opportunities for improving patient care.
The statistics are designed to inform a dialogue with each NHS Board about how it is intrepreting and using its data locally. Each NHS Board is asked to provide a formal response to their profile and a clinically led panel reviews the responses, providing feedback to each NHS Board about how the data are being used.
The latest (third) version of the surgical profile was released to Boards in March 2011.
Further information on the surgical profiles project can be found at The Surgical Profiles Project.
