New Ways Waiting Times Data Extraction and Submission

In the weeks and months following the go live of  'New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times' on 1 January 2008, staff in NHS Boards have been working extremely hard to extract and submit waiting times data to ISD for January and February 2008. Many hundreds of thousands of records have been received and validated and there has been a huge amount of effort been put in by staff across the country into ensuring that this data is reaching the highest possible levels of validity. Now that almost every hospital is reaching high levels of data validity (95% plus), the focus will now start move towards assuring the completeness and accuracy of the waiting times data in readiness for the first quarterly publication in May 2008.

 

New Ways Data Task Force

Some of you will already be aware that the Scottish Government Health Directorate (SGHD) has established a New Ways Data Task Force to support and oversee the work required across Scotland to provide good quality New Ways data to the national warehouse data.  The notes from each of the meetings are published on the New Ways website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/5450.html.

 

New Ways Data Quality Assurance

As well as the day to day quality assurance for New Ways data, there is also a New Ways Data Quality Assurance (DQA) programme of work. There will be four strands:

'Traditional' DQA - Review of patient records onsite

'Desktop' DQA - Sample of data submitted to the national data warehouse

Staff Survey - Survey of Medical Records Managers and Staff

Patient Survey - Survey which compares information from national data warehouse against patients understanding of their own wait

A New Ways DQA Steering Group has recently been formed which includes patient representation. In the next few months the Steering Group will oversee a number of pilots covering each of the four DQA strands.  The Steering Group plan to publish a quality assurance report on New Ways by October 2008.

For more information on this work, in the first instance please contact Rosemary Jamieson at Scottish Government Health Department by e-mail at rosemary.jamieson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

 

New Ways Events

ISD will be hosting Data Warehouse Meeting at St John's Hospital in the Pentland Room on Tuesday 8 April 2008, in advance of the next Chief Executive Meeting which will be held in mid April. Arrivals from 09.30, meeting start at 10.00 until 13.00. A working lunch will be served. 

Topics to be covered include:

• Data Quality - Completeness and Accuracy
• Data Fitness for Purpose
• Go Live
• Publications Plan

If you wish to attend this meeting or if you would prefer to join by videoconference please contact Alison Horne - e-mail alison.horne@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk tel - 0131 275 6022 at your earliest convenience.

As yet there is no new date for the New Ways the event that postponed from Wednesday 19 March.

And finally

As we are moving towards the end of the implementation phase of New Ways this will be the final monthly newsletter from the New Ways team. We will continue to maintain the newsletter mailing list and will e-mail periodically with updates. The team will continue to maintain their regular contact direct with New Ways leads across the country. To keep up to date with the latest New Ways developments, visit the New Ways website at www.newways@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk