Record-keeping weakest link in QoF scores

The worst performing indicator group in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) last year was records and information, according to the English QoF data published last week.

Practices did best in the clinical and patient experience domains of the Quality and Outcomes Framework and not as well in the organisational area, the figures reveal.

Achievement was, however, very high overall with practices earning more than 90 per cent of the points available in the clinical, additional services and patient experience domains.

In the organisational domain, which is worth 184 points, practices earned 87% of the points available in five areas – patient communication, education and training, medicines management, clinical and practice management and records and information.

Practices were most successful in the practice management indicator group, with a mean score of 93.9%, and least successful in the records and information indicator group, with a mean score of 84.8%.

The records and information indicator group is the largest section in the organisational domain is worth £10,591 for the average practice this year. It covers aspects such as the percentage of summarised records a practice has, a requirement that records, hospital letters and investigation reports are filed in date order or available electronically in date order as well as targets about recording the smoking status and blood pressure of patients.

A statistical bulletin produced to go with the Quality and Outcomes Framework data also reveals that the average score by practices in each of the 303 PCT ranges from a low of 672.7 points (64.1% of points available) to a high of 1,039.8 points (99.0% of points available).

In the clinical domain practices were most successful at achieving the targets for hypothyroidism and coronary heart disease (CHD) and least successful with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and epilepsy.

Data for every practice in England is available on the Health and Social Care Information Centre website and has also been converted into user friendly tables by Dr Gavin Jamie, a GP in Wiltshire, who has set up a website with all the results at www.gpcontract.co.uk.

Dr Jamie told EHI Primary Care that he also hopes to publish raw data on the site in the next couple of days so practices can upload to their own databases to analyse the figures. Eventually he hopes to publish a national baseline on the site for practices to compare themselves.

Dr Jamie’s site also features the PCT prevalence data on Google Maps and will later add a program which will reveal which PCTs are most similar in prevalence.

Links

Quality and Outcomes Framework results for England
www.gpcontract.co.uk