The University Hospital of Hartlepool is ending 2021 with a national joint register accolade recognising its commitment to patient safety.
The National Joint Register (NJR), which monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations to improve clinical outcomes, has awarded the hospital its Quality Data Provider certificate.
Only hospitals that achieve the NJR’s ambitious targets can achieve the prestigious award. These targets include providing in joint replacement surgery evidence of:
- Supporting patient safety
- Standards in quality of care
- Overall cost-effectiveness
Chris Tulloch is our Trust’s deputy medical director and orthopaedic surgeon. He said: “Anything that improves patient safety is to be welcomed and we enthusiastically share our information with the NJR.
“The NJR collates and uses the data to draw conclusions and improve orthopaedic procedures. So it’s essential that we provide the correct information in a timely manner.
“We’re thrilled to receive the Quality Data Provider certificate.”
The NJR Data Quality Audi
The NJR Data Quality Audit investigates the accurate number of joint replacement procedures submitted to the registry compared to the number carried out and recorded in the local hospital Patient Administration System.
The audit ensures that the NJR is collecting and reporting upon the most complete, accurate data possible across all hospitals performing joint replacement operations, including the University of Hartlepool.
National Joint Registry Medical Director, Mr Tim Wilton, said:
“Congratulations to colleagues at the University Hospital of Hartlepool.
“The Quality Data Provider Award demonstrates the high standards being met towards ensuring compliance with the NJR and is often a reflection of strong departmental efforts to achieve such status.
“Registry data now provides an important source of evidence for regulators, such as the Care Quality Commission, to inform their judgements about services, as well as being a fundamental driver to inform improved quality of care for patients.”
The team at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust who made this accolade possible includes:
- The Homeward Team
- Ruth Allan, theatre support worker
- Deborah Race, healthcare assistant
- Carolyn Brown, administration services manager
- Sue Waller and Linda Wildberg, clinical quality and data management leads
About the NJR’s Quality Data Provider Award
The scheme has been devised to offer hospitals a blueprint for reaching high patient safety standards through NJR compliance and serves as a reward those who have met their targets. To gain Quality Data Provider (QPD) status for 2019/20, hospitals were required to meet six targets.
The scheme benefits hospitals and ultimately future patients by recognising and rewarding best practice; increasing engagement and awareness of the importance in quality data collection; and helps embed the ethos that better data informs and ultimately enables improved future care.
For more information about the NJR’s Quality Data Provider certificate scheme, please visit the NJR’s website.
