Using routinely gathered data to evaluate locally led service improvements.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Health Informatics
• Data Analytics

Background:

• NHS Ealing explored combining multiple data domains to quantify patient movement across primary care and acute hospital boundaries.
• Feasibility testing included establishing online, near real-time analyses for comparing patient subsets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of integrated data analysis for patient flow.
• To provide near real-time data for evaluating healthcare interventions and policy.

Main Methods:

• Combined data from multiple domains to track patient movement.
• Developed online analytical reports for continuous data updates.
• Analyzed changes in hospital admissions and bed-days related to specific interventions and patient groups.

Main Results:

• Reports provided confidence to project teams and influenced local health policy.
• Demonstrated the ability to track changes in hospital admissions post-referral to community matrons.
• Showcased changes in hospital bed-days during complex interventions for inter-disciplinary collaboration.

Conclusions:

• Integrated data warehousing and online analysis are valuable for evaluating complex service improvements in general practitioner (GP) consortia.
• Such reporting provides ongoing feedback, aiding cost containment and quality improvement.
• Current London data warehousing plans lack the ability to combine whole-economy data for these purposes.