Volume 11 Issue 2 December 2017 Welcome to Knowledge Matters Hello Knowledge Matter readers – long time no see!!! It is a real honour and privilege to be back with you as guest editor for this 10 year Anniversary bumper edition. It’s a great credit to the team that they have continued to publish this high quality, fun but informative newsletter – aimed at analysts and quality improvers alike and designed to delight your inner geek! So, what am I up to now you may be wondering? Well, I am continuing the mission of trying to support the NHS to make better use of data. I have been working at NHS Improvement as Head of Improvement Analytics for just over a year now. I have a small team of 4 brilliant analysts who have been very busy during 2017. In this edition of Knowledge Matters you can learn about some of what we have been up to. This includes: • • •
the development of a tool to help Trusts identify key issues affecting emergency flow which may be impacting upon A&E performance; the creation of a tool to help Trusts analyse their Red2Green data; the development of a free tool designed for front-line staff to be able to create annotated SPC charts.
In addition, I have established a community of interest for folk interested in measurement for improvement – now with nearly 700 members! The final thing to mention today is that NHS Improvement has established a modular leadership for improvement programme for boards. It is probably no surprise to Knowledge Matters readers that measurement for improvement is one of the most popular modules so far. The first module was delivered to a Trust board last month – feedback was good so fingers crossed for the next few! I will talk about this more in a future edition. For now all that remains is for me to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a 2018 filled with #plotthedots!
Inside This Issue : Creating a measurement for improvement movement
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NHS Improvement - free analytical tools!
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Emergency Flow Improvement Tool
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Safety Thermometer update (including ‘create your own dashboard’)
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QO hospital ward visit
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Primary Care Web Tool eDeclaration
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Bite size learning
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Readers Poll - favourite poem
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Christmas crossword
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Readers Poll - favourite outfit
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Ask An Analyst
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News
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2 Creating a measurement for improvement movement Samantha Riley, Head of Improvement Analytics, NHS Improvement Hello Knowledge Matters readers. Earlier in the year, you may remember that I wrote to you about the establishment of a virtual community of interest for people interested in measurement for improvement. I’m here today to give you an update.
As some of you may know, I am reasonably active on twitter. Back in April, I tweeted that I was establishing this community - within a week I had 100 members which I thought was pretty good. Since then the community has grown to an incredible 650 people!!! Whilst most members work for the NHS in England, we also have participants from across the world and people working in other sectors (for instance local authorities and the police force).
So, why did I create this community? Well for those of you who have read Knowledge Matters over the years, you will know that I am passionate about how we can use data to drive improvement.
The
disappointing thing is that despite the strong evidence base which describes precisely why we should use approaches such as SPC, all too often we still see data being poorly presented. Two point comparisons and RAG reports continue to dominate much of the analysis which is undertaken within the NHS. How many people are familiar with this document? Measurement for improvement is a theme which runs through Developing People, Improving Care https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/developing-people-improvingcare/ and Condition 3 talks about the requirement for all staff in health and care organisations to have easy access to improvement resources, guidance and tools. Lots of materials already exist on the topic of measurement for improvement, so rather than recreate existing materials with a different logo, I decided to established a Kahootz guidance,
site
which
analytical
brings
existing
templates
and
academic publications together in one place.
Members come from a wide range of backgrounds – analysts, clinicians, people involved with quality improvement and front-
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3 line staff.
There are active
discussion threads, people are sharing
knowledge
and
experience and seeking support from
other
members
of
the
community.
In November, I organised two national events on how to make measurement
for
improvement
mainstream.
These interactive
workshops enabled delegates to understand the science and statistical rigour underpinning SPC, hear about the experience of Trusts who are on a journey from using two point comparisons to using SPC, learn more about plans that NHS Improvement has and contribute ideas on how to make measurement for improvement mainstream. Approximately 100 people attended each event – many of whom made a pledge. Here’s a familiar face!
If you would like to join the measurement for improvement movement please do get in touch! Samantha.riley1@nhs.net You might also like to follow me on twitter @samriley and track #plotthedots
STOP PRESS!! Quality Observatory Social Media Attention readersM. Our Twitter address has recently changed and you can now find us at: https://twitter.com/SCWCSU_QO (@SCWCSU_QO) or find us on Facebook at: http://facebook.com/quality.observatory
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NHS Safety Thermometer Update The NHS Safety Thermometer, which is managed by the QO team, has gone from strength to strength over the last year. We have launched a new re-designed website which is faster, more efficient and makes managing and analysing your data easier than ever. For those of you not familiar with the NHS Safety Thermometer, it was initiated in 2011 with the intention of providing a ‘temperature check’ on harm that could be used alongside other measures to create a local view of safety and system improvement. The key design principles that governed its design included the ability to measure change over time, across different care settings, being quick to collect and with clinically validated measures. The purpose was very much for the NHS Safety Thermometer to be used as a measurement instrument for local improvement. The Original (“Classic”) thermometer was created with the aim of being a measurement tool to help deliver ‘harm free’ care, defined as the absence of pressure ulcers, harm from falls, urine infections (in patients with a catheter) and treatment for new venous thromboembolism (VTE) Four additional NHS Safety Thermometer measurement instruments were developed between 2014-16 following requests from measurement and safety leads; medications safety, maternity, mental health and children & young people.
Each month we publish a ‘Classic’ dataset which consists of several online dashboards as well as 4 files that are available to download; Viewer Tool, Harms Tables, Raw data file (ST format) and the Raw data file. You may be interested in downloading and exploring the Viewer Tool which includes dashboards and charts for the publication dataset. Nowadays the team processes 500+ submission files every month for the Classic Safety Thermometer. And there are 200+ organisations using the website and tools to collect and manage their data. This means that there is a huge wealth of information available to be used. All this data can be accessed from the online tools and dashboards on the Safety Thermometer website, and you can export the data or even dynamically link to it so that you can incorporate it into your own work & tools easily! And here is how to do it in a way that will allow you to pull your Safety Thermometer data into an Excel workbook with a simple click of the Excel refresh button...!
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NHS Safety Thermometer - Create Your Own Excel Dashboard! Getting data sets from behind the charts has never been easier! Due to changes in our Information Governance policy, we are no longer creating the Excel dashboard download, however you can now access the same information from the live website and create your own. Firstly, navigate to the data chart you need, making sure that the correct organisation is selected from the drop-down. Click the ‘Export Chart Data’ icon The figures behind the chart will appear in a separate tab and, as it pulls the data from the live data set, this will always be the most up-to-date data available. The chart data can then be copied and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet, however this would only create a static document, i.e. it will not update automatically when new data is added.
So, to create a dashboard which will update whenever new data becomes available..... Open a new Excel spreadsheet. Firstly, you will need to tell it where to pull the data from. To do that, go to your chosen chart in the Safety Thermometer website and repeat the steps above to display the chart data in a separate tab. Now copy the entire web address from the new tab. Go back to Excel and select the Data tab on the ribbon. Click the ‘From Web’ button and this will launch a pop-up window (please note the first time you try this, it will probably display the homepage of your web browser). In the address bar at the top, paste the web address of the chart data set that you just copied. Select the data you wish to import by ticking the yellow arrow (when selected it will turn into a green tick). You can select multiple arrows. When you are happy press ‘Import’.
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NHS Safety Thermometer - Create Your Own Excel Dashboard (continued) You will now be asked where you wish to paste the data. Just select the first cell where you want the data to appear and you are now set up ready to create charts as normal in Excel. Now, when new data is added to the Safety Thermometer and is available on the web tool, all you need to do is open your Excel spreadsheet, go to the Data tab on the ribbon and click the ‘Refresh All’ button. If you have multiple chart data sets in the spreadsheet, this could take a few minutes to process, but it will update every chart. Scroll to the end of your table and you will see the new data has been added automatically. This technique can potentially be used with any webpage that includes tables of data, giving you the tools to create your own dashboard download that is specific to what you need! In April 2017 the NHS Safety Thermometer programme came under the auspices of the Patient Safety Measurement Unit* and alongside this we launched the updated and revamped website. This has had plenty of positive feedback regarding the new design and much more user friendly layout: Yep, got into the system, had a bit of a play... Most importantly, the graphs seem excellent now. I had been about to make a start on my own effort but that's what you've already done, so unless there's a category that you don't do but my local team need, I'm saved the effort - James Andrew The website is easy to use and the layout is good, easy to navigate to different sections - Simone McCracken New #safetythermometer site is much improved esp inputting & reporting - well done all involved #harmfreecare #QI - Carl Walker @cwwalker10 The brand new website launched to great success. The user migration was fairly quick and painless, and any issues that popped up were quickly resolved. The Support Services team have worked hard to ensure that the user guides were up and running, and that they were ready to answer the avalanche of email queries and the busy phone line. They did a great job, closing more than 95% of the queries each month in less than 24 hours – well done team! As we head towards the New Year, there’s still lots to come; more WebEx training sessions for people who want to find out more about the system, and we will be launching new features and functions. Lots to do, but our team is up for the challenge! You can access the Safety Thermometer tools at: https://www.safetythermometer.nhs.uk/ You may also find the ‘Support’ pages of interest with regards to; key terms, measures, definitions, collecting and interpreting data, user guides and FAQs. For more information or for help with creating your own Excel dashboard from the Safety Thermometer data, contact the Quality Observatory Support Services team at: info.safetythermometer@nhs.net * Find out more about the Patient Safety Measurement Unit (PSMU) and our national patient safety improvement programmes, such as the Patient Safety Collaborative: https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/patient-safety-measurement-unit/
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QO Bitesize Learning Joe Hughes, Programme Support Assistant As we know just how much knowledge matters, the QO have recently begun to conduct Bitesize Learning sessions within the office, in order to share our personal knowledge with the rest of the team. Adam kickstarted this with a very helpful presentation on NHS Data Infrastructure, which introduced many of us to patient pathways, national and local information sources and the big book of coding and classification and how it works. He also delivered another presentation on Measurement for Improvement, what it is and various different ways we can measure improvement under different circumstances. This introduced many of us to funnel plots, pareto analysis and histograms and gave us a good understanding of how to use them and read them – thanks Adam! At some point, we are all likely to host a WebEx and/or deliver a presentation to colleagues or customers. Being an ex -teacher, and an expert in the field, Sophie delivered a very professional presentation on “How to WebEx”, which included not only how to actually get a WebEx started but how to manage a WebEx, plus some key skills involved in delivering a presentation in the most effective way, from planning your presentation, through to the slick delivery. We all know that WebEx can often have connectivity difficulties and I wonder if any of you have experienced any of these! Finally, I delivered a presentation on OSTicket, a ticketing system we are beginning to use to track and respond to queries coming in via email. As there are many people in our office who are likely to use this system at some point, it is important that everybody understands how it works. So far, we have found these Bitesize Learning presentations to be very helpful in broadening our knowledge as a whole team and I would recommend adopting a similar learning method across your own offices! ☺
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Readers poll: Vote for your favourite outfit of the last 10 years!
Anyone who has seen Knowledge Matters over the last ten years will be aware of our longstanding tradition of dressing up different members of the team in a fitting way to illustrate the theme of each issue. This is all thanks to Charlene Black and her amazing ability to make us all look fabulous! We have pulled together some of the best ones from across the years, and you, our beautiful readers, get to vote for your favourite! Go to our Twitter or Facebook pages to cast your vote and results will be published in the next issueM. https://twitter.com/SCWCSU_QO/ status/944166696121749504 http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html? p=5a3ce6f8e4b0b0ce15b8c817
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Free Analytical Tools from NHS Improvement Samantha Riley, Head of Improvement Analytics, NHS Improvement One of the consistent things that I have heard over the years from people working in Trusts is that it is sometimes difficult for analysts to find the time to support front-line staff and clinicians who are trying to make improvements. Why is that? Well, all too often too much analyst time is taken up by feeding the various national ‘beasts’. Knowledge Matters readers do of course understand the critical importance of measuring the right things, in the right way and presenting data in a way which evidences whether changes made have resulted in improvement. What’s the ideal way to present data to evidence this?
An annotated SPC chart of
course! With this in mind, we have developed an easy to use Excel tool which can be used by frontline staff to create such a thing! Here’s what it looks like – there is even a short accompanying video which talks you through how to use it. You can choose to enter daily, weekly or monthly data. As you enter your data, this is automatically plotted, with the SPC rules that are triggered being highlighted using colour. You can record when you have made interventions and these are automatically annotated on the chart. You can also choose when to recalculate your control limits. So, how can you access this tool?
It is available to download for free (along with the video) from the
Measurement for Improvement Kahootz site. Go to resources, QI templates and then SPC tools – this tool appears at the top of the list. You will need to become a member of the measurement for improvement virtual community to gain access to this resource along with many more. So if you are not a member already, email me to join samantha.riley1@nhs.net For those of you who are working in Trusts that are implementing Red2Green and finding it difficult to analyse your data, we have developed another free to use analytical tool. Here’s a link to find out more about Red2Green https:// improvement.nhs.uk/improvement-offers/red2green-campaign/ and here’s the link to the tool https://improvement.nhs.uk/ resources/red2green-improvement-tool/ If you have any ideas about additional analytical tools that it would be useful for us to create, please do let me know! Samantha.riley1@nhs.net
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Visit to East Surrey Hospital Eye Ward Liam Blaney, Programme Support Analyst In October the Support Services team visited the Ophthalmology Department on Limpsfield Ward at East Surrey Hospital to see how a patient’s treatment pathway ultimately leads to the data we receive and process on a monthly basis. This was a fantastic opportunity to engage with frontline staff and see the different stages and systems for record handling and data collection, and we are very grateful to the ward staff for allowing us this opportunity. During the visit we had the chance to speak with staff members who have the unenviable job of balancing patient appointments, pre-assessments, paperwork, patient aftercare, reception duties and so much more, and still manage to find the time to collect and report the data we rely on for improvement within the healthcare system. The hospitality of the staff was incredible given how busy they all are; everybody was enthusiastic and had a smile on their face and made sure that everyone, patients and visitors alike, were treated with the utmost respect and kindness. On our tour of the department we were able to see what happens behind closed doors when patients attend their appointments. We were shown through the waiting room and reception, taken through to the preassessment room, and finally given a look via the anaesthetist’s room to the operating room where surgical procedures take place. Downstairs in the eye clinic at the back of the outpatients department, we saw how the space was planned and signposted with accessibility and safety for visually impaired in mind. An explanation of the Outcomes forms also provided better understanding and the importance of clinical coding for Outpatient Analysis Fields and how that data can influence for example demand and capacity planning based on treatment to follow up ratios. Among the highlights of the visit was the plastic eye the nurses use to explain the various issues patients may have with their vision, including how cataracts are formed, and the procedures performed to remedy these (certainly not for the squeamish!). This model can be taken apart to show how the eye is structured, and allows patients to get a better understanding of what to expect during and after their treatment. We hope the trip was also beneficial for the staff at the hospital, as we were able to explain exactly what it is we do with all the data they collect for us. We also hope we were able to convey how the day to day data collection efforts of the staff influences NHS services improvements. An example of this was when we realised busy staff still find time to hand out Friends and Family Test feedback cards and explain the benefits. This was a very educational and interesting visit for us, and the team would definitely be interested in exploring similar opportunities in the future.
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11 The team have provided their feedback and comments below. Becki - ‘I found the trip to East Surrey Hospital really useful because I have never seen the front line side of data before. It was interesting to be able to see the additional work and effort that goes in to getting data submitted using feedback from patients, which means that we are able to have a more empathetic approach with organisations when there is an issue with their data. I also felt that it was important to show the hospital staff that there is a point to their submissions, and that all of their effort is appreciated as we have more data to analyse which can lead to improvements going forwards.’ Sophie – ‘Our trip to the Limpsfield Ward at ESH was a great chance to see where our data comes from and how it fits in with the rest of their workload. Being able to see the FFT cards being displayed and handed out, having a brief glance at the sheer number of monitoring programmes in use at any one time, and being able to chat to the frontline staff who need to balance this with the vital patient paperwork on top of providing patient first careM I was blown away. I certainly feel a lot more educated about how a hospital department runs – everyone who spoke to us was friendly, knowledgeable and very open to answering questions which was fantastic. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to see the NHS world behind the data, and would be very keen to explore more on further similar visits.’ Joe – ‘I think the trip to the optometry department at East Surrey Hospital was valuable to the team, particularly in terms of understanding the bigger picture of what we are helping to improve as a CSU and seeing where we fit in to the whole operation. In was interesting to see the FFT Feedback cards on the ward as we generally only see the end data in the office. It was also very touching seeing the enthusiasm of the staff working on the ward, despite the extra hours and incredibly busy schedule they commit themselves to on a daily basis (not to mention squeezing us in for a visit). It makes you realise how lucky you are to have people like this in the world! Seeing how busy the department was with patients coming through makes you realise the importance of feedback surveys such as the FFT, giving these organisations a chance to improve their efficiency and ultimately, patient experience.’ Lisandra – ‘I really enjoyed our visit to SaSH - Eye Clinic, as I could see how everything works there and how many stages there are, from the patient’s arrival until the patient’s surgery. I really liked the fact that the staff were really helpful and willing to explain to us a bit of everything they do on a daily basis, even if they were busy and had many other things to do.’
Reference: https://www.surreyandsussex.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Information-for-Patients-following-CataractSurgery-in-Limpsfield-Day-Unit.pdf http://www.rnib.org.uk/new-nhs-standard-your-blind-and-partially-sighted-patients https://www.macularsociety.org/preparing-documents-visually-impaired-people
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Readers poll: vote for your favourite poem! by Adam Cook (a.k.a. MC AC), Head of QO Analytics I don’t remember exactly when, but it was early on in the publication of Knowledge Matters, that we had been to an analytical fair. Samantha had been presenting and some of the team had been manning a stand. We knew that there would have to be a write-up in KM, and I remember discussing on the train with Kiran, in a joking manner, writing something up as a bit of verse, and so based on the nursery rhyme “We Went To The Animal Fair”, (my kids were quite young at the time – so it was on my mind!), the first Knowledge Matters poem emerged. Many managers would have nodded, smiled and then pushed it to one side – not Samantha, she loved it and put it in the newsletter, and then challenged me to write a poem about SPC – I did, and the rest is history. Every issue since*, I tortured the English language with forced rhymes, haphazard scansion and awful puns, mostly with a vague healthcare theme. Here are collected a few of my favourites – I hope you like them too, and you can show how much you like them by voting in this Twitter pollM Go to our Twitter page or Facebook pages to cast your vote and we’ll give you the results in the next issue! https://twitter.com/SCWCSU_QO/status/944166630577311744 http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=5a3ce571e4b0b0ce15b8c815 *apart from that one issue when Suzanne wrote a poem about Pancakes (possibly the best poem we’ve ever published)
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Adding a Print Button Using VBA by Dani Collier Application: Microsoft Excel Q) How do I print the different selections of a dashboard without having to select each view in turn from the drop down box and then print manually?
Solution: Complexity 1/5 A) If you have a dynamic dashboard which changes when you select an item from a dropdown box, it can be quite tiresome to print all of these different views if you need to. You can do this easily by using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and creating a print button using the following steps. 1) First you should set up your print area. Select ‘Page Layout’, highlight the cells you want to print, select ‘Print Area’ and from the drop down box ‘Set Print Area’. Change the orientation if need be.
2) Select the dropdown box then ‘Format’, ‘Selection Pane’ and rename the dropdown box to something easy to reference such as ‘Selected_Dropdown’ 3) Create a button by clicking the ‘Developer’ tab, then ‘Insert’, ‘Button (form control)’. Draw the button. This will then ask you to ‘Assign Macro’. Create a name such as ‘Print_List’, and then click ‘New’ 4) This will then allow you to enter the VBA code as follows (copy without the numbering - this is used to explain the code, further along). This code toggles through the drop down list changing the view for each printed page. A 'safety' question box is included along with a pop up box to select the printer. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Sub Print_List() Dim printquestion As Integer printquestion = MsgBox("Are you sure you want to print?", vbYesNo + vbQuestion, "Print") If printquestion = vbYes Then ActiveSheet.PrintPreview Application.Dialogs(xlDialogPrinterSetup).Show Dim Selectedcount As Integer Selectedcount = ActiveSheet.DropDowns ("Selected_Dropdown").ListCount For n = 1 To Selectedcount Sheets("List").Range("A3").Value = n ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets.PrintOut Copies:=1, Collate:=True Next n
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15 13. 14. 15. Key 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Else End If End Sub
The name of the macro ‘printquestion’ will be the VBA reference name of the message box question Sets up the question with a yes or no selection If the user selects ‘Yes’ then Print preview shows the setup of the first print User can select which printer is used (possible to save as PDF if printer allows) “Selectedcount “ sets the name of the VBA reference to count the number of items in your dropdown list (will select the max value) “Selected_Dropdown” is the name of the dropdown box Loops through the dropdown list This is the cell that links to the dropdown box (called Cell Link in the Format Control) Sets how many copies are printed Selects the next value in the list (which will select the next view of the dashboard) Like ‘or’ in an if statement Ends the argument Ends the Macro
5) Right-click the button and then ‘Edit Text’ and label the button so the user can easily identify what it does, for example “Print each selected item” 5) Click ‘File’, ‘Save As’, select the ‘Save as type’ dropdown and choose ‘Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook’ and then click ‘Save’
To allow users to use the print button, when opening the file macros must be enabled. Not allowing macros will still allow the workbook to be used but not any macros.
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The Emergency Flow Improvement Tool Samantha Riley, Head of Improvement Analytics, NHS Improvement One of the key resources that my team has developed this year is something called the Emergency Flow Improvement Tool (EFIT for short). Hopefully some Knowledge Matters readers have already come across it. EFIT is an online Tableau resource which was launched in September and which presents a range of indicators that illustrate flow through a Trust from arrival to discharge. This flow tool is provided as an improvement aid rather than a performance tool; allowing Trusts and their stakeholders to visualise their data and prompt questions about where demand, pinch points and blocks are occurring in their system. There are 28 indicators within the tool. Each time series graph has been processed against six statistical process control (SPC) rules to highlight common cause (expected) and special cause (unexpected) variation. There is also a benchmarking feature to show how a trust compares to all others. You are able to drill down into individual indicators to understand more about how things are changing over time and there is an SPC rules ‘grid’ which indicates which rules have been triggered when. We are using colour to indicate how users should react to the data. Grey dots indicate expected variation – so don’t react to the data. Orange dots indicate special cause which needs to be investigated – maybe a waiting time is worsening. So investigate and take action. Blue dots are also special cause variation – but here you are likely to be seeing an improvement. You still will want to investigate and learn how this improvement has been achieved. So, how can you access this tool? For people working in Trusts, you need to obtain a log on to the Model Hospital website https://model.nhs.uk/ Then simply click on the Emergency Medicine icon and you will see this logo on the left hand side of the screen which takes you to EFIT.
For those of you who would like to access the tool but are not working in a Trust, you simply need to email NHSI.efit@nhs.net requesting access. You will then be sent terms of use which will govern your access, and access will be granted within 48 hours. We have had really good feedback from Trusts – they are telling us that the presentation of the data is helping them understand where they need to investigate and focus, and also understand where improvement efforts are having an impact. This is the first of a number of tools which utilise existing data and present it in a way which is useful to Trusts. In the new year, we will be starting work on a flow tool for use by mental health Trusts. So watch this space!
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eDEC Decidedly Done! Sophie Purcell, Programme Support Assistant The Support Services team have had a busy couple of months, but one of the resounding successes has been the completion of the Primary Care Web Tool eDeclaration (eDEC). The eDEC is the Annual Electronic Declaration, a confidential submission between practice and commissioner (fully delegated CCG and NHS England local commissioning office). This replaces the previous requirement of practices to submit an annual report and usually occurs over a six week period, approximately late October through November each year. This is the second year that the Support Services team have assisted with the running of the eDEC, acting as first line of support for GPs, Regional teams and CCGs trying to submit their Edec. It has been the highest submission response rate in the history of eDEC: 99.54% submitted (only 33 practices remain outstanding and did not submit)!
The owner of the project, Paul Foggitt, was soon in touch to thank us for our “support and great work towards delivering a high quality service”, one that we’ve been working very hard to do! As a team, we have responded to 714 primary care queries in November and 1,078 since eDEC opened. And overall, the Support Services team have responded to over 1,325 queries in total in November!
Charity Christmas Jumper Day South Central and West CSU took part in the national Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 15th December and the QO gang did their bit for charity by joining in. All donations go to Save The Children. If you also want to help us support this amazing charity, you can donate £5 by texting
TEAMSCW to 70050 (using reference CJD170040292)
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Christmas Crossword! Our resident expert puzzler, Aleks, has compiled another little festive brain teaser for our readers. See how you get on - answers will be in the next edition of Knowledge Matters. Good luck!
Once you’ve solved the crossword above, see if you can find the solution to the puzzle below. Fill in the numbered fields with the letters from corresponding fields in the crossword, then divide them into words to get a winter quote.....
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The Quality Observatory Go Curling! As it was ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ (well, mid-November) the team chose to wander a bit further afield for our Christmas Do and we headed to ‘Sliders’ at Roof East, Stratford Multi Storey Car Park (yes, that is its actual address) to have a go at curling! Roof East is basically an empty rooftop car park, right next to the Olympic Park, that has been transformed into a kind of winter wonderland with six lanes for curling, some heated igloos, a couple of bars and some great views.
The whole team were all rather excited to have a go at curling, since none of us had ever tried it before. It turns out that curling is loads of fun! It definitely brings out the competitiveness in the QO gang, especially when the boys are pitted against the girls. Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that the girls beat the boys – again! To use an analytical term, this is becoming a trend!
Afterwards we hung around on the rooftop for a few mulled ciders and then took the tube to St Pauls for some amazing Mexican food in Wahaca. Very Christmassy! A few even came across a famous bear and had their photo taken with him...
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Becki Wins An Award! Recently our great leaders at South Central and West CSU announced that they wished to honour those staff that bring to life our organisational values; Patients First, Respectful, Aspirational, Collaborative, Insightful. Immediately our very own Becki Ehren sprang to mind as a worthy contender. Not wishing to imply that she isn’t normally a very hard-working and gifted analyst, but we did feel she deserved special recognition for an exceptionally challenging piece of work. Becki handled some difficult circumstances incredibly well and managed to keep her head when all around her were losing theirs! She even went a step further and volunteered to become our area’s Wellbeing Representative, meaning she takes on personal responsibility for the welfare of her QO colleagues and others, and endeavours to ensure we receive all the support we need in the workplace. As a result she was nominated by her colleagues for the SCW CSU Values Award and, following a closely fought contestM she won! Here she is with her fancy certificate ....
Secret Santa - Charity Shop Challenge A few Christmases ago the QO gang decided we were bored with the usual Secret Santa format and chose to spice it up a bit. Firstly it was decreed that all presents had to be sourced solely from charity shops. Plus we ditched the idea of picking names out of hats to determine who gets your chosen gift, and decided to leave it in the lap of the gods! It’s now largely a contest to find the most random present which, without knowing who will be the ultimate recipient, can produce some interesting results. This year’s pressie extravaganza took place last week and featured an ‘egg-splode’ egg cup and toast cutter, a yoga exercise ball and festive face mats, as modelled here by Adam, Annette and Sarah. The real beauty of the QO Secret Santa is that no Oscar-winning faces of gratitude are needed when you open your gift, and any unwanted pressies go straight back to the charity shops who get to sell them again - everyone’s a winner!
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NEWS New Data Published Since the last issue, there have been new data releases of the following:
Safety Thermometer The latest “Classic” publication dataset for the Safety Thermometer (for November 2016 – November 2017) has been published and is available to download directly from the Safety Thermometer website: https://www.safetythermometer.nhs.uk/index.php/ classic-thermometer/analyse-data-classic/datadownload-classic
New Prescription Data for Dementia and Antipsychotic Drugs For the first time, NHS Digital has published data relating to levels of antipsychotic drugs prescribed to patients with a dementia diagnosis. They have included the number of people with a prescription of antipsychotics in the last six weeks, plus the same data just for patients with a diagnosis of psychosis and also just for those without a psychosis diagnosis. Information will be available at CCG and STP level, plus sub-regional, regional and national. More information is available at the following link: http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30173
Friends and Family Test The latest data for the Friends and Family Test (for October 2017) has been published and is available to download from the NHS England website: https://www.england.nhs.uk/fft/friends-and-familytest-data/
Outpatients Activity Report Published At the end of November, the Hospital Outpatient Activity 2016/17 report was published by NHS Digital. This annual report includes appointment and attendance figures and contains information relating to sources of referral, cancellations, treatment specialties, age and gender. The latest report shows that the number of outpatient appointments has almost doubled in the last ten years. In 2016/17 there was a 79% attendance rate, and the 60-79 patient age group accounted for more than 30% of all attendances. You can find the full report at: http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30154
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New Care Models - Upcoming Webinars NHS England are running a series of webinars in the new year that may be of interest. Among others, these include: Engaging with Your Local Population About Data 10th January 2018 at 12.00 Wendy Harrison, Deputy Head of Corporate Information Governance will lead this session about exploring the legalities, issues and moral challenges surrounding patient data access and control. Linked Data Sets For Planning 28th February 2018 at 12.00 Andi Orlowski, Senior Analytical Advisor to the new care models will take a look at what an ideal data set looks like, and talk about addressing issues such as data quality. Check out the following link to find out more and to register: https://www.england.nhs.uk/new-care-models/ vanguards/meet-us/
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NEWS Olympic Games Sickness Data to Help With Winter Pressures It’s been announced that Public Health England will provide data to NHS England monitoring teams to assist in studying trends of certain diseases such as flu, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
QO Team Birthdays It’s been another busy time for birthdays. Dani, Tao, Matt and Lisandra have all celebrated theirs recently and have been the lucky recipients of the usual Quality Observatory birthday goodies - as you can see below!
This data was first collected in 2012 to try and predict illnesses that may impact the London Olympic Games. The system has since expanded and now includes data from GP practices, out of hours services, A&E and NHS111. The aim is to give early warnings of possible outbreaks so that infectious patients can be isolated and planned responses put into action as soon as possible. You can read more at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2017/12/nhs-usessickness-data-as-early-warning-to-cope-with-wintersurges/
Bye Bye Sarah Sarah Scobie, our esteemed Associate Director of Transformation Analytics and Health Economics, paid a visit to QO Towers to wish the team a happy Christmas (and talk about a few workrelated bits as well!). It also just happened to be the day we opened our Secret Santa presents, and she very kindly brought along her own contribution. She herself was lucky to receive a very fetching Santa’s Elf jumper! Sadly, Sarah is leaving us for pastures new in January. The entire QO gang wish her all the best in her new role!
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Welcome Back Charlene! The collective sigh of relief could be heard for miles when Charlene Black returned from maternity leave a few weeks ago. Having installed her baby daughter safely in nursery she brought back her unique humour and analytical skills to the QO team, not to mention her unparalleled contributions to the artwork side of Knowledge Matters. When she left us last year to start her maternity leave, Charlene requested that her desk be cordoned off with police tape and waiting for her in pristine condition upon her return! And what do you know, she has indeed returned to the very same desk, looking all shiny and new. Nobody used it while you were gone, CharleneM honestly!
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Analyst!
Fascinating Facts
Rudolph the red-nosed analyst
Over all the years of Knowledge Matters, Adam has had two poems censored... One about Lord Darzi based on The Lord’s Prayer, was deemed potentially blasphemous to publish. The other contained the word ‘-----‘ which was thought to be too rude to print*, so it was represented as ‘-----‘
Liked to have a drop to drink, And when he opened his spreadsheet, He found it very hard to think. All of the other analysts Used to laugh and call him feeble They never let poor Rudolph Write up any code or SQL. Then one foggy Christmas Eve The bossman came to say, "Rudolph, you're the last one here, This dashboard needs some festive cheer."
*it still is!
Sophie’s joke of the day... Patient: “Will I survive this risky operation?”
Then how the analysts loved him
Surgeon: “Yes, I’m absolutely sure that you will survive the operation.”
When they saw his SPC
Patient: “How can you be so sure?”
"Rudolph the red-nosed analyst
Surgeon: “9 out of 10 patients die in this operation, and yesterday my ninth patient died.”
You'll go down in history"
Knowledge matters is the newsletter of NHS Quality Observatory. To discuss any items raised in this publication, for further information or to be added to our distribution list, please contact us. Hosted by: South, Central & West Commissioning Support Unit E-mail: qoteam.scwcsu@nhs.net Twitter: @SCWCSU_QO Facebook: facebook.com/quality.observatory