ROLE OF THE ASSESSOR

IM&T DES Data Accreditation Conference

London

12.9.06

• PCOs will need to understand what is required for the assessment process. Some of the information is provided in this presentation. Other information will be provided at the end of the assessment pilot process taking place over the winter of 2006.

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• PRIMIS+ will provide a web portal dedicated to the IM&T DES on which it will publish various suggested templates and resources.

• www.primis.nhs.uk/data-accreditation

• This portal will also serve as a repository for PCOs to share policies/procedures/templates etc as well as links to other sites providing IM&T DES tools

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• The actual accreditation process is a three part process which includes :-– a practice submission – a quantitative analysis of data taken from the

practice computer – a visit that will provide the necessary

qualitative analysis.

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• The PCT will plan the assessment visit. Medical assessors with suitable clinical system knowledge will qualitatively assess the quality of the recording of the notes against the standards.

• PCTs may choose to use PRIMIS+ core training to train their assessors. It is inappropriate for the PRIMIS+ facilitators to do the assessments themselves since they are assisting practices in their education and training.

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• It is expected that the assessor will look at a cross section of records for every clinician in order that a practice standard can be properly assessed.

• The goal is not assessing quality of clinical care given to patients but the quality of data captured (or not).

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• Accreditation would normally be expected to last for three years unless there were local reasons for the assessors to limit the accreditation to a shorter time period – for example, if several new clinicians recently commenced work.

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• Once the practice has passed the accreditation standard it will be eligible to join the NHS care record service and to share its patient’s summaries. The list of accredited practices in a PCT will be published and available to patients.

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• Assessors wishing to attend the data accreditation training are recommended to demonstrate prior learning by completing a multi-choice questionnaire based around the IM&T DES, the Good Practice Guidelines, Information Governance and clinical coding.

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• The practice will need to produce evidence to support the assessment visit.

• Other information can be extracted from the clinical system and displayed using the e-audit tools provided by PRIMIS+.

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• PCOs should inform their practices when the visit timetable is available.

• Information should include– How to access training from local information facilitators– What is the preferred format for submission of information to

the PCO prior to the assessment visit– Who will see the information presented to the PCO – What should the practices be working towards– How long will the assessment visit take– How will practices be able to raise any concerns about the

assessment visit– Which staff will the assessors want to speak to in the

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• Assessor Training - The assessor should be a clinician with good health informatics skills. They should have a good working knowledge of one or more clinical systems.

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It is likely that there will be three broad tasks for assessors:

– Reconciling the consultation record with the full EPR, including external documents such as hospital letters and results of investigations.

– Looking at general issues revealed by the

e-audit / system searches– Looking at a specific record highlighted through

CHART that is an example of a diagnosis/ treatment mismatch

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• Satisfactory performance of these tasks will require a detailed working knowledge of the way that GP records are structured

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• The assessment visit may be combined with the QOF visits or may be done independently according to the resources of the PCO.

• Practices should be given time to prepare for the assessment visit and to receive support and training

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• The clinical assessors will need the support of information facilitators trained in data extraction, data interpretation and feedback prior to and during the assessment visit.

• Facilitators should not be used in the assessment process for practices which they are supporting

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• The assessment will have pass/fail criteria which will be refined during the pilot phase of winter 2006.

• Assessors should attend the free PRIMIS+ assessor training which will incorporate the results of the pilot.

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• A pilot of the assessment visit process will take place over the winter of 2006. There will be further guidance issued by NHS Connecting for Health which will expand on the visit process and how the assessment is done.

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• What will your assessors need?

• What does your PCO want from the assessment process?

• How will the process be organised?

• How will you ensure even handedness?

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QUESTIONS?