IrishMedicalNews

Some hospitals collecting data manually

Written by Lloyd Mudiwa Monday, 19 October 2009 11:01

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A small number of hospitals are still having difficulties with collecting data, particularly to do with the reporting of on-site private outpatient department (OPD) activity and diagnostics, required in relation to the verification of the new consultant contract, it has emerged.

While the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has developed a new measurement system, which has now been rolled out to the 49 acute hospitals through the HiPE (Hospital in-Patient Enquiry) system, it only captures inpatient and day case activity (as weighted for casemix) per consultant and reports on the level of private practice on a monthly basis.

This has left hospitals to collect the residual activity, not yet captured by the HiPE system, manually, the HSE said. According to the HSE, this is an interim measure pending the development of automated data collection systems.

In this context, the HSE has instructed that should consultants engage in private outpatient practice on campus such practice should, like all other public or private activities undertaken on the public hospital campus, be subject to measurement as part of the 80:20/ 70:30 ratio of public to private practice under Consultant Contract 2008.

Measurement, the HSE says, includes co-located hospitals on campus, private rooms on campus and private clinics on campus – with three exceptions; the private outpatient practice of existing consultants in private clinics (as of July 26, 2008) on the campus of St James’s and Beaumont Hospitals, both in Dublin, and Cork University Hospital. The HSE says it has issued a substantial volume of guidance on the measurement of public: to private practice.