The accuracy of ECDS data is the responsibility of the NHS providers who submit the data to the Secondary Uses Service (SUS). This data is required to be accurate to enable providers to be correctly paid for the activity they undertake.
SUS is the single, comprehensive repository for healthcare data in England which enables a range of reporting and analyses to support the NHS in the delivery of healthcare services.
When a patient or service user is treated or cared for, information is collected which supports their treatment. This information is also useful to commissioners and providers of NHS-funded care for 'secondary' purposes - purposes other than direct or 'primary' clinical care - such as:
- healthcare planning
- commissioning of services
- national tariff reimbursement
- development of national policy
SUS is a secure data warehouse that stores this patient-level information in line with national standards and applies complex derivations which support national tariff policy and secondary analysis.
A list of mandatory and optional fields for submission in in the Commissioning Data Set (CDS) is provided within the NHS Model and Data Dictionary:
HES A&E: CDS V6-2 Type 010 – Accident and Emergency CDS up to 2019-20
ECDS: CDS V6-2 Type 011 – Emergency Care CDS from 2020-21
NHS Digital has a well-developed data quality assurance process for the SUS and ECDS data. It uses an xml schema to ensure some standardisation of the data received. The use of the schema means that the data set has to meet certain validation rules before it can be submitted to SUS. NHS Digital leads on the schema changes and consults the data suppliers about proposed changes.
Each month NHS Digital creates data quality dashboards available to NHS providers to show the completeness and validity of their data submissions to SUS. This helps to highlight any issues present in the provisional data allowing time for corrections to be made before the annual data is submitted.
An external auditor, acting on behalf of the Department of Health (DH), audits the data submitted to SUS to ensure NHS providers are being correctly paid by Payment by Results (PbR) for the care they provide.
Data quality information for ECDS year to date is published at the same time as the provisional ECDS data, and also alongside annual publications. These provide early analyses to compare data between providers (provider organisation, department type and month) four key fields: chief complaint, clinical Investigation, first diagnosis code and treatment code, published on the link below:
NHS Digital also publishes a regular Data Quality Maturity Index (DQMI) for providers across several datasets including ECDS.