Data Quality
The 18 Weeks Referral to Treatment (18 Weeks RTT) target builds on previous waiting time targets which set maximum waiting times for stages of treatment, for first outpatient consultation, diagnostic tests and for inpatient and day case. 18 weeks RTT focuses on the entire patient journey from the initial referral to the start of treatment.
These data are still under development. NHS Boards continue to work closely with the Scottish Government and ISD to update IT and other systems in order to continue to improve the linking of all stages of a patient's journey to support the measuring and reporting against the 18 Weeks RTT target.
While IT systems are being updated to capture information enabling measurement of the whole patient journey, NHS Boards are using a standard methodology as per National guidance for linking patient journeys. The Unique Care Pathway Number (UCPN) is being rolled out in IT systems over Scotland to identify individual patient pathways of care, along with codes for outcomes following clinical consultations (Clinic Outcome Code recording). Both these developments will help enable the linking stages of the patient's journey. NHS Boards are at various stages of implementing these and are adjusting the standard methodology in order to improve the data collection.
NHS Boards also report that action plans are in place to address the capture of information relating of the stages of a patient's journey taking place in sites where the main IT system is not in use, in return outpatient clinics and when the journey starts outwith the Board of treatment.
Some caution should be exercised in using and interpreting these data at this developmental stage. Until the linking together of all stages of a patient's journey is improved through the upgrades to hospital information systems and the use of UCPN and COCR, these data
