Highgate Hospital named as National Joint Registry (NJR) Quality Data Provider

Highgate Hospital is celebrating after being named as a National Joint Registry (NJR) Quality Data Provider after successfully completing a national programme of local data audits.

The NJR monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations to improve clinical outcomes primarily for the benefit of patients, but also to support orthopaedic clinicians and industry manufacturers. The registry collects high quality orthopaedic data in order to provide evidence to support patient safety, standards in quality of care, and overall cost-effectiveness in joint replacement surgery. The ‘NJR Quality Data Provider’ certificate scheme was introduced to offer hospitals a blueprint for reaching high quality standards relating to patient safety and to reward those who have met registry targets.

In order to achieve the award, hospitals are required to meet a series of six ambitious targets during the audit period 2019/20. One of the targets which hospitals are required to complete is compliance with the NJR’s mandatory national audit aimed at assessing data completeness and quality within the registry.

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 Highgate Hospital.

NJR targets also include having a high level of patients consenting for their details to be included in the registry and for hospitals to demonstrate timely responses to any alerts issued by the NJR in relation to potential patient safety concerns.

Commenting, Douglas Watson, Hospital Director at Highgate Hospital, said:

“We fully support the National Joint Registry’s work in facilitating improvement in clinical outcomes and governance for the benefit of joint replacement patients and we’re delighted to be awarded as an ‘NJR Quality Data Provider’. Improving patient safety is of the upmost importance at Highgate Hospital and something all our staff take very seriously. Well done to all the team involved.”

National Joint Registry Medical Director, Mr Tim Wilton, said:

“Congratulations to colleagues at Highgate Hospital. 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.”

Full details about the NJR’s Quality Data Provider certificate scheme can be found online at: https://www.njrcentre.org.uk.

– ENDS –

NOTES TO EDITORS

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 ambitious 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.

About the National Joint Registry (NJR)

The NJR monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint procedures to improve clinical outcomes primarily for the benefit of patients, but also to support orthopaedic clinicians and industry manufacturers. The registry collects relevant, high quality data in order to provide robust evidence to support decision-making with regard to patient safety, standards in quality of care and overall cost-effectiveness in joint replacement surgery. As a global exemplar now with well over three million records, the NJR also supports and enables research to maximise the rich value of the extensive information now in the registry, and collaborates internationally to foster greater global knowledge and understanding.

The NJR was set up by the Department of Health and Welsh Government in 2002 to provide an early warning of issues relating to patient safety, improve the quality of outcomes and ensure the quality and cost-effectiveness of joint replacement surgery. Northern Ireland joined in 2013, the Isle of Man in 2015 and the States of Guernsey in 2019.