National Clinical Improvement Programme (NCIP) theatre data set discovery programme

The purpose of establishing the NCIP theatre data set discovery information system is to enable NHS Improvement to assess the potential of theatre data to enhance the attribution of surgical activity, as recorded in Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) data, to consultants. Inaccurate attribution of existing activity data to consultants is a risk to the success of NCIP. 

The NCIP theatres data set discovery project has a number of specific aims: 

• Demonstrate that theatre data can be extracted from theatre systems
• Demonstrate that theatre data can be securely transmitted, processed and stored by NHS Digital
• Demonstrate that theatre data can be successfully linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) data at procedure level, including developing an optimised algorithm to support such data linkage
• Assess the feasibility of using theatre data to address the issue of accurate attribution of activity to the correct consultant 
• Support investment justification for future England-wide collection, including understanding data items and definitions routinely recorded within theatre systems and potential barriers, burden and costs associated with submission to NHS Digital. It will also assess the feasibility of such information to meet a variety of other identified use cases in the future, for example: efficiency and productivity of operating lists; derivation of performance metrics such as, time from admission to surgery. 

Overall, it is intended that the data provided further to this mandatory request will enable an assessment of: 

1) the accuracy and depth of HES data in regard to the attribution of surgical activity to individual consultants; and 

2) the potential for theatre data to provide a superior means of attributing surgical activity recorded in HES to individual consultants and other grades of surgeon and anaesthetist. The accurate attribution of activity is essential to support the learning and improvement activity required to achieve the programme benefits. This will ultimately assist providers to comply with the conditions of the provider license, provide health care services which are economic, efficient and effective, and identify means for improving the quality of services provided. 

Sections 255, 255(1), 255(4)(b), 256(2)(a), 257(4), 262(4), 262(5), 262(7) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.