Background
Since 1991, the Scottish Consultant Review of Inpatient Statistics (SCRIPS) has provided a personal report to clinicans of their inpatient and daycase workload completed over a financial year.

In response to the demand for Quality Improvement / Clinical Governance information, ISD Scotland has developed an electronic version of this report called eSCRIPS. This allows eligible NHSScotland Consultants who have inpatient and daycase cases recorded on the Scottish Morbidity Record file (SMR01) to carry out a range of analyses on their own inpatient and daycase data, including diagnoses and procedures, length of hospital stay, elective / emergency admissions and deaths.

Data for an individual clinician can be compared to Board and Scotland averages. All summaries are based on diagnosis and procedure groups using the ICD-10/OPCS-4 coding classifications. The eSCRIPS system allows the user to look at individual records as well as patient histories over the available time period.

The web based electronic package eSCRIPS (Electronic Scottish Consultant Review of Inpatient Statistics) was launched in July 2002. This package gives hospital consultants in NHSScotland secure access over the NHSnet to nationally recorded information about their inpatient and daycase workload and provides local and national comparative information.

The eSCRIPS system is intended to provide a useful resource for consultants to access when they have information needs (e.g. as an information resource for appraisals and a starting point for clinical audit etc).

Latest updates
As of the 31st January 2008, eSCRIPS contains 3 periods of data:

April 2004 to March 2005

April 2005 to March 2006

April 2006 to March 2007

The next update of the system is planned later in 2008, when the period of data for April 2004 - March 2005 will be removed from the system and replaced with data from April 2007 - March 2008.

Data Quality and Completeness
The eSCRIPS system allows users to see the information held on the national database and it offers the opportunity to review the quality of that data. Should there be a specific query or error within any of the patient record details, eSCRIPS will provide enough information to follow this up within the individual Hospital or Division. It is hoped that use of eSCRIPS will help support ongoing data quality work within NHSScotland.

Further information on data completeness for individual trusts is available here.

Analyses available

There are several different types of analyses available within eSCRIPS:

• Individual Consultant
  This is aimed at an individual consultant looking at his or her own workload via a range of pre-defined analyses.
• Consultant Group
  This set of analyses is aimed at a team of consultants working in the same specialty within a hospital or Division. By agreeing to share data with colleagues consultants can then see a range of analyses based on their combined workload.
• UHB Summaries - all consultants
  These analyses offer summary information at board level which is available to all consultants.
• UHB summaries - opt-in
  Consultants can opt to share data with colleagues within a hospital/Division. All consultants who agree to share data then have access to consultant level summaries of workload and outcomes.
• Medical Director
  This facility is only available to the Medical Director. It provides a range of consultant, specialty, hospital and board analyses based on all data submitted by the board.

Results from Consultant Questionnaire 

In June 2003, the eSCRIPS team at ISD sent questionnaires to 1700 consultants across Scotland who have data in the eSCRIPS system. 438 (26%) consultants completed and returned this questionnaire.  
Click here to see the results .

Accessing eSCRIPS
If you are a Consultant who is eligible to use the eSCRIPS system then you can access the system via this link.