Frequently Asked Questions

Data Submission

What data needs to be included in first, and subsequent, 'live' submissions of New Ways data?
For first submission (inserts) all patients currently waiting - IPs, DCs, new OPs & return OPs (for procedure) should be submitted.  ISD will also take any 'old' (New Ways) data, i.e., where patient has been removed from list.  Following first submission ISD will need scheduled (a) inserts of any new referrals/additions to list and, (b) updates to records currently within the data warehouse. If any records "didn't make it" in first submission then these should be corrected and inserted. It is an absolute pre-requisite that all patients waiting at 1 January 2008 are submitted, irrespective if submission date is after 1 Jan 2008 and if such patients have subsequently been removed from the list.

When do I have to start to submit live data in to the warehouse?
The data submission deadline depends to some extent on how you intend using the data .e.g. some Boards are going to use the information for operational management purposes and therefore they will be extracting their data daily. Others only plan to extract fortnightly. The January 2008 waiting data will be included in a preliminary 7 February snapshot (for internal ISD QA purposes) and subsequently in the final 21February snapshot which will be used for all reporting on January waiting activity.

It is very strongly recommended that you extract and submit data as soon as possible, and well in advance of these February dates,  as there are likely to be a large number of data errors which will have to be corrected  (and/or other data quality issues) . To delay submission until mid-February, for example, would possibly increase the risk of inaccurate data being used in national management information reports (for the Scottish Governement) that will be produced from the 21st February snapshot.  Examples of potential errors can be see on the New Ways website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4866.html#data_error

Further information on data submission timetables for 2008 was published on the 'guidance' section of the New Ways website on 28 November 2007. 

For many of our patients who were managed pre New Ways, we have no information on offers and unavailability.  How should this be handled? 
Extracts submitted to the warehouse where no data on offers or unavailability exists will still be loaded into the warehouse without error except if:

• the referral date or waiting list date is after 31 December 2007, and
• the patient has been removed from the waiting list having attended or been admitted

A consequence of the absence of this data is a possible inflated calculated waiting time as no CNA/DNA or unavailability can be taken into account.  Patients with an ASC who have been migrated to New Ways should have a period of unavailability recorded to prevent this (see FAQ on ASC migration).