Knowledge Matters Volume 2 Issue 1

I N S I D E T H I S B U M P E R B I R T H D A Y I S S U E

1 Welcome

1 Fascinating Fact

2 Coding Corner

2 PbR Poser

3 A3: Ask an Analyst

4 Skills builder – conditional formatting

6 What’s in Andrew’s favourites?

8 Making links – Workforce Review Team

9 Clinical Metrics

10 Data Quality

11 News

12 Website statistics

12 Peter’s diary

12 Quick Quiz

Welcome to the 1st Anniversary edition of Knowledge Matters. Over the past 12months we hope that we have provided you with a range of informativearticles, an insight into other health related organisations, up-to-date newsitems, links to useful tools and websites and we hope that in addition we havemade you smile! I am pleased to announce that in March, the Board of NHS South East Coastapproved the Knowledge Management Strategy. The strategy outlines the keyknowledge management priorities for the SHA over the next 12-24 months andis available to download from our website. We now have over 200 registeredusers of the website – see the back page for some statistics on utilisation of thesite and also to find out who has won the prize draw. The team has continued to work hard over the past couple of months and hasupdated existing/developed new tools. Analysis has been undertaken on therecently published staff survey results from 2007. The outpatient follow upcalculator has been updated with the 2007/8 data and two additionaloutpatient tools have been published. The first tool enables you to obtain aspeciality view of how your follow up rates compare to: all other Trusts in thecountry; national average and top quartile. The second tool provides aspeciality view of how follow rates have changed over time. All of theseoutpatient tools now contain data for all Trusts in England making them of useto people outside South East Coast. A range of tutorials have been developedwhich will help those of you who are users of ESR. All of these tools/productsare available for download from the website. Also this month, Kiran presented his workforce profiling tool at the ChiefNursing Officer business meetings in Leeds and London. We will be workingwith other SHAs to enable them to populate the tool with local data andcascade training to Trusts in other parts of the country. For those of you who are more technically minded, Skills Builder On-line has anew section – the Analyst Toolkit. This contains a collection of VBA scripts forExcel and Access designed to automate some of those really monotonous tasks.Simply by copying the code into your personal workbooks you should be able tosave some valuable time. Finally, it is with regret that we say good bye to Andrew Wilk who retires at the end of April. I am sure that many of you know Andrew and would like to join everyone at the SHA in thanking Andrew for his commitment to the world of NHS information and analysis and wish him well for the future.

April 2008 Volume 2 Issue 1

Knowledge Management Team, South East Coast Strategic Health Author ity [email protected] nww.sec.nhs.uk/knowledge

Welcome to Knowledge Matters By Samantha Riley

Samantha Riley Samantha Riley

Fascinating Fact Did you know that acrossSouth East Coast there are 15different Job titles with theword cook in, 35 differentjob titles with the word chefin them and over 80 differentjob titles with the wordcatering in them?

Do you have something you would like to contribute to Knowledge Matters? Please contact us!

Knowledge MattersPage 2

Numbers of episodes with the following diagnoses in the first three positions in the year 2007 for SEC trusts.

V95.4 - 0 V97.3 - 2 T79.4 - 4

X50 - 1103 R57.9 - 4

Andrew’s Coding Corner PbR Poser Here’s a scenario to test your knowledge of Payment by Results……... “A friend of mine is expecting twinssoon. So far she has had sixmaternity related admissions to herlocal hospital maternity ward, 4 forultrasound monitoring and 2 forfalse labour. The babies are notdue yet and I saw in the local paperthat her Primary Care Trust isworried about its finances. Howmuch would they be expected topay the Trust for her care so far,according to the local rules forPayment by Results?” Answer: four follow-up Obstetricsoutpatient ward attendances at £66each occasion and two admissionsfor false labour at £319 each (HRGN12). Classification as admittedcare is appropriate only where apatient “requires a bed to lie downdue to their general condition”. Inthis case, a bed was used only tocarry out a procedure – a period ofultrasound monitoring – whichaccording to the Data Dictionary isclassified as outpatient care. Send your PbR queries andquandaries to us at the usualaddress: [email protected] and we will do ourbest to provide you with helpfuladvice and guidance.

External Causes of Morbidity and Mortality Driving home up the A21 near Farnborough, Kent, the other Sunday, anewsflash on the car radio caught my attention. An aircraft which hadtaken off from nearby Biggin Hill Aerodrome had just crashed onto houses ashort distance ahead. We could see smoke plumes and the first thoughtthat flashed through my mind was… V97.3 Other specified transportaccidents, including non-occupants of aircraft, person on ground injured. Coding of external causes of injury draws the interesting distinctionbetween injuries to occupants of aircraft and those unfortunates in itspath. Miraculously the house residents were away and no-one on theground was injured, though some people close to the accident site neededtreatment for shock at nearby Farnborough Hospital, - R57.9 Shockunspecified, rather than T79.4 Traumatic Shock, which would apply whereshock followed on from injuries. External cause coding separates the proximate cause of the injury from thenature and location of the injury and its treatment. It is particularly usefulin economic analysis, for example permitting the NHS to calculate the costto society of treatment due to road traffic accidents, or falls in the elderlypopulation. It can also provide an insight into the perils of modern living,such as X50 injury due to excessive exercise including marathon running,which unsurprisingly tends to occur in the run up to the London Marathoneach April. Looking to the future, there is one external cause code I have yet to see inuse, but I’m keeping my eye out for it just in case: V95.4 Spacecraftaccident injuring occupant. “Area 51, abduction by aliens” anyone? This is the last edition of Coding Corner from me, I’m handing over the mantle Adam Cook. Please let Adam know if there are particular topics you would like covered.

…. the new addition of the Cheemafamily and many congratulations toKate and Kiran. Kate will bereturning to the team at the end ofAugust.

Welcome to …

Is there something that you wish you knew more about? To suggest future topics for knowledge matters contact the team

Page 3Knowledge Matters

If you have a question for the team please e-mail: [email protected] Q – I haven’t used Unify 2 for a while and have forgotten my user name. What can I do? A – People forget things. It's human nature. Users often have too many passwords. How many passwords and user names do you have to keep track of? A typical PC user in an organisation like the NHS may have 10 to 20 passwords. If you forget your Unify 2 password or login details, simply email your username, first and last names and organisation name to [email protected] , asking for your username and/or password to be reset. It’s that easy ……. The knowledge management team will reset the password for you and email you a new password which needs to be changed on the first login. Just remember, in creating a new password, use something simple and easy to remember not forgetting that passwords are case sensitive and, specifically for Unify 2, they need to be 6 characters long.

- Peter Nyaga Q – I have a lot of data stored in table format and I’m spending a lot of time “UnPivoting” it into a flat file formatto process, is there an easier way to do this? A – Here is some code that will do that for you – simply save it to your personal workbook and use it anytime! For those ofyou who are registered users of the website, you don’t need to type this in – you can copy it from the website…. Sub Unpivot()

startrow = ActiveCell.Row startcolumn = ActiveCell.Column startrowloop = startrow columnoffset = InputBox("Column Offset?") Range(Cells(startrow, startcolumn), Cells(startrow, 256)).Select Selection.Find("").Activate endcol = ActiveCell.Column Range(Cells(startrow, startcolumn), Cells(64000, startcolumn)).Select Selection.Find("").Activate endrow = ActiveCell.Row a = endrow - startrow b = endcol - startcolumn - columnoffset - 2 Cells(startrowloop, startcolumn).Activate

For J = 1 To a For i = 1 To b ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select Selection.EntireRow.Insert Range(Cells(startrowloop, startcolumn), Cells(startrowloop, startcolumn + columnoffset)).Select Selection.Copy Cells(startrowloop + i, startcolumn).Select ActiveCell.PasteSpecial Next i Range(Cells(startrowloop, startcolumn + columnoffset + 2), Cells(startrowloop, startcolumn + columnoffset + b + 1)).Select Selection.Copy Cells(startrowloop + 1, startcolumn + columnoffset + 1).Select Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteAll, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks:= _ False, Transpose:=True Range(Cells(startrow - 1, startcolumn + columnoffset + 1), Cells(startrow - 1, startcolumn + columnoffset + b + 1)).Select Selection.Copy Cells(startrowloop, startcolumn + columnoffset + 2).Select Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteAll, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks:= _ False, Transpose:=True startrowloop = startrowloop + b + 1 Cells(startrowloop, startcolumn).Activate Next J End Sub

A3: ASK AN ANALYST

- Adam Cook



In Issue 4 of volume 1, Adam Cook looked at applying conditional formatting to cell values. In this issue we arecontinuing with this theme and looking at the use of formulas in conditional formatting. As we saw previously in Excel 2003, it is possible to change the formatting of a cell depending on the cellcontent i.e. you can set Excel to change the cell background colour, text colour or text size when values arechanged in the cell. You can also set Excel to change these parameters when values are changed in other cells. This can also be achieved by using the conditional formatting function. To access this function, the fifth menu along in the Excel menu bar is “Format”. Click on this and towards the bottom of the options is one called “Conditional Formatting”, choose this. You will now see the Conditional formatting dialog box shown below.

By default the conditional formatting dialog box shows the “Cells value is” option. In order to create a formula, you will need to click the arrow next to the box and select “Formula is” from the drop down box.

The first thing that you will notice is that there are no predefined conditions like “between” or “greater than” for you to choose from, you have to create these using logical operators (>=<) When conditional formatting with formulas you need to create a formula that evaluates to a logical value - TRUE (1) or FALSE (0)

Some basic rules to bear in mind when creating conditional formats using Formulas :

The formula must always start with an ‘=’

For example =A1>2

You can use a mixture of standard operators (‘=’,’ >’,‘<’,‘<=’ ,’>=’,’+’,’-‘,’/’,’*’) For Example =A1>A2 or = A1+A2=10 The formula must results in the logical values TRUE (1) or FALSE (0) And you can use functions like sum or Average For Example =A1>sum (B2:C2) You can use a mixture of Relative and Absolute cell references For example =$A1>=A2

Skills Builder: Conditional Formatting – Formula is



In this example we have selected the range and you can see that cell D6 is not “grayed out” this is the “start cell” for your formula and Excel will copy the format to all cells in the selected range. In the conditional format box select “formula is” and type: $D6 is used to keep the column reference absolute and allow the row reference to change when it is copied.

“So”, I hear you ask, “this all seem rather complicated to use so why bother?” Well once you have got the hang of writing conditional formulas they can be incredibly handy to create interactive displays of your data, below are a few examples: Applying a Red/ Amber/ Green Status to an Entire row based on a data in a singe cell: Take the data set below, how would you highlight the rows which had values in column D less than 5?

You may remember in the last issue we had a news item on the luckywinner of the Christmas Quiz. In addition to winning ‘Excel Charts’,Damon received a unique, personalised mug designed by the KnowledgeManagement team. Here’s a quote from one of Damon’s colleagues: ‘Do you remember the look on Gwyneth’s face when she received heraward at the Oscars? It was nothing compared to the look of pride andpleasure on Damon’s face when he unwrapped his prize from theChristmas knowledge matters quiz’. Watch out for future competitions – you never know, next time it couldbe you…….

More prizes ……

Things to be careful of when using formulas to conditionally format: • You can apply up top 3 conditional formats and they can be a mixture of ‘cell value’ or ‘formula is’ • Remember to order your conditions - Excel will stop at the first condition that evaluates true. • Do not use the arrow keys on your keyboard as these will modify the cell references that you use in

the formula rather than moving the position of the cursor! • Remember that when using the button to select cells for use in the formula will automatically

create an absolute cell reference that will need to be changed to if you want to paste the format to other cells!

Select the colour formats to apply and hit OK. You can alternatively set the format on a single cell and use the format painter ( )to apply it to the areas you want. Using custom formatting to highlight every other row.

In this example we are using the same example data as above. This time select “formula is” and type Select the colour formats to apply and hit OK. Apply this format to the area you want using the format painter

Using Custom Formatting to match % change between different data sets: In this example the conditional formula checks the month on month % change in each column and highlights the ones that are the same. This time type: Select the colour formats to apply and hit OK. Apply this format to the area you want using the format painter.

You can use “formula is” in a number of ways not described here, you can even use “formula is” to flag deviation in a data set. The best way to get a hold on the technique is to go have a play!



“What’s on your i-pod?” “What’s in your Favourites?” These are questions of modern times. What could be more revealing than those essential links that complement the ubiquitous Google Search Engine on your “Favourites”? After so many years of working in NHS information, I have a multitude of items in my favourites – far too many to cover in one article. So, this will be the first in a number of articles in which I give away the links which have underpinned my workflow, some of which may be known to you, but others may be new. Bear in mind that links may not last forever and are often the first casualty of organisational change. So to start with, here are my favourite websites which are relevant to coding and classification…………………….. NHS Data Dictionary (England) http://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/index.asp

“The NHS Data Model and Dictionary provides a reference point for assured information standards to

support health care activities within the NHS in England.

It has been developed for everyone who is actively involved in the collection of data and the management of information in the NHS.”

The data dictionary is one of the most important sites for all NHS information professionals – it has definitions for all

data items on all major datasets, and should be the first point of reference for any definitional queries.

CDS Schema v6 http://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/web_site_content/pages/cds_and_hes_indices/cds_version_cds006_type_list.asp?shownav=1 CDS Schema v6 is the latest version of the CDS and covers the all the CDS datasets – A&E, Outpatients, Inpatients and Waiting Lists. This site lists all and mandatory and optional fields along with their definitions. Schema v6 has special relevance to coding data items along the 18-week pathway.

Data Set Change Notices (DSCN) http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/dscn/dscn2007/

“The Data Set Change Notice (DSCN) gives notification of changes to information requirements which will be included as appropriate in the NHS Data Dictionary, and the NHS Commissioning Data Set Manual.”

All the changes to data collections (including CDS), are listed via the DSCNs. They show where and when the change takes place, and how the change affects current practice.

What’s in Andrew’s favourites? Top Tips from the outgoing Business Intelligence and Information Advisor

Andrew Wilk


Page 7Knowledge Matters OPCS 4.4 order form http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/data/clinicalcoding/codingstandards/opcs4/downloads/register-4.4 The OPCS Classification of Interventions and procedures has upgraded from version 4.3 to 4.4. Register with this site to download the full new code set to use as lookups, and also tables of equivalence to map from OPCS4-4.4 back to earlier releases.

HRG Version 4 http://www.ic.nhs.uk/our-services/standards-and-classifications/casemix/hrg4

“HRG4 is a major revision of existing groupings to take into account complex cases and extend the scope of groupings beyond admitted care to new clinical settings.” HRG4 is the next phase of HRG coding and includes a much greater level of detail and sophistication than ever before. This site from The Information Centre helps with preparation for the transition to HRG4. HRG4 has been used for reference costing since April 07, and will be used for tariff for 2009/10.

Professional Association of Clinical Coders – News and “Coding Clinic” http://codeinfo.org/paccuk/news.html Clinical coding is no longer something esoteric and obscure, the impact that is has on finances through PbR is enormous. This site keeps you up-to-date with all of the developments in the clinical coding world. Records Management Code of Practice http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4131747

“The Records Management: NHS Code of Practice is a guide to the required standards of practice in the management of records for those who work within or under contract to NHS organisations in England. It is based on current legal requirements and professional best practice” Information governance, and the correct handling and maintenance of patient sensitive information is of

paramount importance. Download the Department of Health guidelines from this site. Finally, I’m going to finish this issue with an essential desktop productivity website:

Excel Guru John Walkenbach Spreadsheet Page http://j-walk.com/ss/

John Walkenbach has forgotten more about Excel than most of us will ever know. This site has spreadsheet help and history, resources and books – and even a page with spreadsheet jokes – a geek’s paradise!

I retire from the NHS in a few days, but don’t worry I have provided the team with such a long list of favourites that my presence in Knowledge Matters will be felt for some time yet……. Enjoy!



“The Workforce Review Team consists of expert analysts,

data modelers and professional advisers.”

“A library of over 130 anonymised WTD compliant

rotas can be searched”

“The review consisted of qualitative research

techniques and quantitative data collection and analysis

covering all healthcare sectors across the UK”

Workforce Review Team By Dr Judy Curson, Director

The Workforce Review Team (WRT), based in Winchester, Hampshire, with an office inLeeds, is a national body working on behalf of the NHS in England, primarily to supportworkforce decision making within the 10 Strategic Health Authorities and the Department of Health. Key activities undertaken by the WRT include:

• Influencing workforce planning and development priorities e.g. via WRT’s workforce risk assessment process and workforce supply and demand models

• Stimulating the way that NHS services are delivered by sharing evidence, analysis

and best practice via review meetings, conferences and workshops, and

• Advising managers and policy makers on how to adopt effective workforcestrategies.

The Workforce Review Team consists of expert analysts, data modellers and professionaladvisers for medicine, dental teams, allied health professions, the healthcare sciences,pharmacy, nursing and midwifery. WRT produces over 100 workforce summaries for arange of individual medical specialties and professions. The summaries provideintelligence to the workforce planning community across England as well was individual workforce assessments on the main risks in relation to the supply of and demand forqualified staff working in the specialties and professions. Dr Judy Curson, FFPH, is the Director of WRT. Judy has spent her career in the NHS in clinical and managerial roles including as assistant medical director at Frimley ParkHospital, as director of public health for North and Mid-Hampshire Health Authority and was a member of the Audit Commission. WRT completed a three-month review of the specialties and professions on the currentHome Office Shortage Occupation List (HOSOL) for the Department of Health. The reviewconsisted of qualitative research techniques and quantitative data collection and analysiscovering all healthcare sectors across the UK. The HOSOL affords employers the ability tofast-track UK work permits in order to expedite the recruitment of overseas healthcare professionals from outside the UK/EA. The list has now been rationalised with a number of staff groups being removed. Asubsequent study, identified staff groups needing to be added to the list. This final piece ofwork brought the HOSOL fully up to date. As a member of the Home Office Health Sectorpanel, WRT is committed to updating the list on an annual basis. Working in partnership with National Workforce Projects, WRT has designed a ‘rota database’ with powerful search engine capabilities. A library of over 130 anonymised WTD compliant rotas can be searched using a range of options and then used by colleagues inthe NHS involved in workforce planning. The database went ‘live’ on the healthcareworkforce portal in September 2007 WRT also gets involved with workforce planning at a local level, recently providinginformation support to some Trusts seeking foundation status and currently working with aDistrict General Hospital to identify some options for reconfiguring their infection controlteam (ICT) To find out more about these and other WRT work streams visit the website: WWW.WRT.NHS.UK

Dr Judy Curson,Director WRT



Clinical Metrics – stroke services Simon Berry, Development Analyst South East Coast SHA is undertaking an exciting programme of work to develop metrics from existing data sources that areuseful to clinicians involved with stroke care. This work commenced last autumn and a wide range of clinicians from acrossSouth East Coast have met on a number of occasions to: -

Define metrics which are useful to them; Review analysis which has subsequently been undertaken and debate why variation appears to exist in different

areas of South East Coast; Further refine measures already defined and agree new metrics

A programme of work is also underway focussed on the development of metrics to describe dementia services.

Analyses have been undertaken on the following areas: programme budget spend; number of admissions and length ofstay to non mental health hospitals where patients had a primary diagnosis or dementia; QOF indicators; predicted vsactual prevelance. In the next issue of Knowledge Matters, an article will be published by Adam Cook which describesthe work of the dementia group in more detail. In the meantime, if you would like further details or would like to beinvolved, please feel free to contact Adam ([email protected])

Dementia Metrics

Further work is now underway to: - Develop an SPC based length of stay tool which will

enable Trusts to understand the variation in length ofstay for individual patients and also the distributionof patient stays;

Re-run a number of the Trust based analyses alreadyproduced to enable a comparison between sites;

Combine data sets relating to patient admission forstroke at Worthing and Southlands Trust withinformation from the radiology system. By combiningthese data sets it will be possible to understand thevariation in how long patients wait for CT and MRIscans

ASPH

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Stroke Mortality Rate by Trust and Site within 28 Days of AdmissionSource: HES 04/05 to Q2 07/08 Provisional, Emergency Admissions, 1st Episode, 1ry Diagnosis I60-I61, Discharge Method 4 - Death

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Surrey Sussex KentEngland Average 2006/07

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HRG Coding for Emergency Admissions with a Primary Diagnosis of StrokeSource: HES 04/05 to Q2 07/08 Provisional, 1st Episode, 1ry Diagnosis I60-I61

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Surrey Sussex Kent

A22 Non-Trans Stroke or CV Acc>69 or w cc

A23 Non-Trans Stroke or CV Acc<70 or wo ccA99 Complex Elderly with a Nervous System 1ry DiagA19 Haemorrhagic Cerebrovascular Disorders

Other

As expected, there are issues relating to the quality of data recorded within some organisations and functions. The strokesub group will be issuing a range of guides and advice on how to pro-actively improve the quality of data where issues havebeen identified. This will form part of the SHA data quality improvement strategy which is currently in development.

I have recently learnt of work on stroke analysis being undertaken by the Kent HIS and will be linking with them overcoming months. If you are aware of additional work underway in this area, or if you would like to become involved withthe programme, please contact me.

A wide range of metrics have already been agreed andanalysed. These include mortality rates, length of stay,discharge destination, HRG coding, proportion of strokeadmissions with a prior attendance for a cerebro-vascularcondition and the percentage of patients attending A&E witha cerebro-vascular condition arriving by ambulance. All ofthis analysis is available to download from the KnowledgeManagement website once users have registered of the site(nww.sec.nhs.uk/knowledge). This is very much work in progress. Clearly a range of modelsof care are in place across the patch which can explain thevariation evidenced by the analyses. The stroke sub groupare able to provide the local context which is critical wheninterpreting the data to draw conclusions.



Data Quality – the SUS Data Quality Dashboard

Samantha Riley, Head of Knowledge Management

Data quality is one of the key priorities within NHS South East Coast’s Knowledge Management strategy. TheNational Audit Office, Audit Commission and Information Centre for Health and Social Care have all published arange of documents which describe the data quality issues facing the NHS and make a range of recommendations forthe improvement of data quality. Recently a number of toolkits have been launched which provide bothcommissioners and providers with a wealth of information to identify the areas where data quality issues exist. How many of you are aware of the SUS 18 week Data Quality Dashboard? This was launched in February and wasdesigned to assist Trusts in preparing to report for 18 week waits on measuring Referral to Treatment (RTT), byproviding data quality reports on their SUS data. The dashboard provides a range of data quality indicators forinpatients, outpatients and A&E and is a great tool to improve the general quality of data. The dashboard iscurrently populated with SUS data for 2007/08 Q1 and Q2.

The tool is easy to navigate and can provide agraphical representation of the performance of Trustsand Independent Sector Providers against nationalbenchmarks A colour coded dial clearly identifiesareas of concern and each indicator is accompaniedwith a clear definition. There is also a help pagewhich describes data sources in some detail.

The dashboard is run using Internet Explorer and the file type is a shockwave file (“.swf”) file. This is available to use on the knowledge management website at: http://nww.sec.nhs.uk/knowledge/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=171&Itemid=137 , You can alternatively download the file for use on your local machine instructions on use and interpretation can also be found on the website. If you have any problems accessing the dashboard, please contact either Adam Cook or the Information CentreHelpdesk ([email protected]) The Data Quality dashboard is a really useful tool which should be used to support a review of the quality of datasubmitted to SUS. The review should ensure that the data entered into or derived in PAS and other local systems is:

• Comprehensive and covers all services managed by Providers; • Compliant with published data standards. These can be found at http://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/web_site_content/pages/cds_and_hes_indices/commissioning_data_set_versions.asp?shownav=1 • Complete and accurate.

A South East Coast

A South East Coast



News

Let us raise a glass of Rosé to the incomparable Mr. Wilk It will be a long time before we meet another of his ilk. From the tumult of the NHS to a life of peace, Relaxing on a sun-kissed balcony in Nice. For many a long year he’s displayed rigour and determination,In providing our health services with first class information. Building up a picture from the details to the whole, Giving us the numbers to met each Department goal. He’s challenged the assumptions with good old solid facts, And put wayward ways of coding back upon the tracks. Health & happiness to Andrew, he’ll be sorely missed, And have another glass of wine. I know you won’t resist* And now, at last, the time has to come to conclude this ode, What better way to finish than with a clinical code. Z600** *what do you mean you can think of a better rhyme for missed ** Go look it up.

Ode to Andrew

Public Health Information Specialist Vacancy Would you like to work in East Sussex as part of the publichealth intelligence team based in the beautiful town ofLewes? East Sussex Downs & Weald PCT and Hastings & Rother PCTare looking for an experienced analyst with knowledge andexperience of working with/in public health. Pay band 7 £28,313-£37,326 Closing date Friday 2nd May 2008 If you would like more details on this post, please contactGraham Evans, Head of Public Health Intelligence on 01273403693 or [email protected] For the job description and to apply please go to NHS jobsat the link below: http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/vacdetails.cgi?selection=911988761 Note: the post is advertised separately under each PCT,however they are both for the same post that will becovering both PCTs

Have you got a vacancy for an analyst??? Let us know and we will advertise it in Knowledge Matters and also alert potential applicants via our website – all free of charge …..

National SUS User Group established

A National SUS user group has been established withrepresentation from Trusts and PCTs across the country.The Trust representative for NHS South East Coast is AndyBanks from the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust and the PCTrep is Laura Moogan from the Surrey HIS. Laura and Andywill provide an important link between the local SUSgroup which has met for some time now and nationaldevelopments. BCBV indicators Unfortunately, Quarter 3 data has still not beenpublished. There is no definite date for this informationto be published. We are keeping a careful eye on thewebsite and will post updates on our website as and whendata/further news becomes available. Vital Signs Thanks to all organisations who submitted Vital Signsplans in the recent planning round. The Department ofHealth have met with the SHA to discuss these and we arein the process of feeding back comments to PCTs whererequired. Following concerns raised regarding the mismatchbetween the timetable for LAAs and the Tier 3 Vital Signsplans, the DH have decided to extend the VSC deadline.VSC trajectories will need to be loaded onto Unify by lateMay – exact date to be confirmed. If you need to makeany changes to your Tier 3 submissions, or have anygeneral Vital Signs queries, please email the South EastCoast planning mailbox – [email protected] If your organisation’s Vital Signs/planning contactschange please could you let us know – again, via thePlanning mailbox. We would also like to hear from you if you have anycomments on or suggestions for improvement regardingthe Vital Signs process. 18 weeks All providers have recently completed an exercise torefine the ready reckoner figures used in calculatingtheir data completeness. The Department of Health 18weeks team are currently reviewing Trusts’ submissionsand are aiming to give feedback on these in early May,after the publication of the February RTT data, showingthe impact of the new figures on February data and alsogiving any general data completeness messages. It isexpected that the revised ready reckoners will be usedfor the March RTT data (published 29th May) with theweekly PTL reports reflecting these in June.



Being an analyst new to the NHS – reflections after 3 months So it is almost three months since I joined the NHS South EastCoast. Having joined the NHS from a different field, it hasbeen a steep learning curve coupled with a lot of excitingexperiences. I have learnt a huge amount ‘on the job’ (also known as“Baptism by Fire”). But the first days were not all an easy ride.The memory of the first morning is still fresh in my mind where,after icebreaking and brief introductions with the team,anxiety, panic and phobia started to set in as I tried to get agrip of terminologies NHS staff around were using. Why did theyhave to use initials in almost everything they said? To get me into the tempo and rhythm of work, I took over someUnify 2 tasks (including daily sitreps – aaaghh!), learnt aboutSUS, HESonline, and of course updating dashboards. To beginwith I was startled by how frustrating systems like Unify 2 canbe, but have learnt that patience certainly is a virtue! Despite initial challenges, I feel that I am becoming moreattuned to the NHS. In general, the experience so far has beengreat. Ive been faced with a variety of situations each day andthey all seem to have a unique twist to them. This morning asI read information on the better use of information by “Dr.Foster intelligence” I couldn’t stop wondering who is this Dr.Foster? (I remember something from my childhood about himjumping into a puddle up to his middle…?) Sure, an analyst's job is not “just to analyse”. I have realisedthat rather, it invites and in fact requires investigative skillsand a wider reflection that is much needed in order to providegood quality, accurate analysis.

Knowledge matters is the newsletter of NHS South East Coast’s Knowledge Management Team, to discuss any items raised in this publication, for further information or to be added to our distribution list, please contact:

Knowledge Matters C/O Knowledge Management Team NHS South East Coast York House 18-20 Massetts Road Horley,Surrey, RH6 7DE

Phone: 01293 778899

E-mail: [email protected]

To contact a team member: [email protected]

Peter’s Diary

In the last issue we announced that wewere going to enter the first 200registered users of the knowledgemanagement website into a prize draw.Having now reached 219 users we arehappy to announce that the winner wasKevin Tansley (user Kevint504) from WestSussex PCT. Congratulations Kevin! Youwin a limited edition mug and Ask AnAnalyst Mouse Mat – they are winging theirway to you!

Since it’s launch at the end ofJanuary the knowledgemanagement website has beaccessed 4306 times andattracted 219 registered users.

The site currently holds 106 articles available forreview, these articles have been accessed a massive9019 times! Among the most popular articles youseem interested in finding out about:

• The Knowledge Management Team; • Our Work Programmes; • This informative publication!

We also have 136 files available for download. 1191 downloads have been made from the site with the most popular downloads being the 18 week RTT tools which have been downloaded 297 times making up 25% of the downloads!

This is closely followed by theKnowledge Matters Newsletterswhich have been downloaded172 times making up 14% of alldownloads!

The site has attracted users from all over thecountry including London, Cornwall & Isles Scilly,Coventry and Lancashire.

Website statistics

A manufacturing machine produces 100 pieces of drills in 30minutes. After 1 hour, the drills are divided into groups of 4and placed in a box. If 2% of the manufactured drills aredefective, in how many ways can one select a box containing 2defective products?

1. 4,950 2. 4,753 3. 119,400 4. 114,660

Quick Quiz

The answer is 4: 114,660

Documents

Knowledge Matters Volume 2 Issue 1