Data Quality Education Sessions for Coding Staff, what's happening out there?
Jacqui Curley a, Helen Nolan b
Introduction
The Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) collects activity data on admitted patients in public hospitals in Ireland. HIPE staff work hard to collect data for over 1.7million discharges annually and in order to link the daily operational work into where and how the data is used, and the importance of data quality, the HPO has provided quarterly HIPE data quality sessions for all HIPE staff.
The Healthcare Pricing Office (HPO) manages this data set including the provision of training for HIPE coders and also has data quality and audit functions. There are approximately 320 HIPE staff nationally including HIPE coders and Managers and team structures vary from hospital to hospital.
Methods
The HPO have delivered scheduled quarterly HIPE data quality session online since 2013 and prior to that data quality education sessions were held approximately twice a year. These 2 hour quarterly sessions give feedback to HIPE staff on how the data they collect is being used at a national level, the importance of high quality data and information on all areas of data quality.
For example, in 2023 topics covered in the HIPE data quality sessions included:
- Classification updates
- Endoscopy diagnostic coding
- Neonatal sepsis/risk of sepsis
- Overview chart based audits 2022
- Coding of Tobacco Use Disorders
- Augmentation of labour
- COPD/Asthma/Bronchitis
- STEMI and NonSTEMI review
- Clinical documentation
Issues identified during other data quality activities can be raised or areas where coders are raising queries and additional specific training is required e.g. post procedural complications, diabetes.
The sessions also provide an opportunity to train HIPE staff in the use of HPO data quality tools for example audit software, Checker tool and any updates or changes to the PICQ system (a commercial data quality tool) which is in place in all hospitals.
At times of an update to the classification the data quality sessions give a platform to look into particular areas in more depth or address queries and questions from coders on the update.
Additional data quality sessions can be scheduled for specific topics - for example a session was held on the assignment of the hospital acquired diagnoses flag.
Results
There has been consistently strong uptake for these sessions and the material is shared with attendees for discussion and sharing of the content amongst the teams.
The numbers attending the sessions are shown below for the last 5 years:
During COVID these sessions were particularly useful for staying connected to the coding community and letting them know how important their work is.
Conclusions
The data quality sessions have provided a useful platform to keep the coding community informed of the wider applications of HIPE data which they may not otherwise be aware of. Feedback and engagement on data quality matters helps to share learning and close the audit cycle. HIPE staff are informed as to what is happening out there with the data they collect.
a Head of HIPE & NPRS, Healthcare Pricing Office, Ireland, Ireland
b Interim Head of HIPE Coding, Healthcare Pricing Office, Ireland, Ireland