Key Facts
In the period from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013:
• 7 trusts had a 'higher than expected' SHMI value, compared to 11 trusts for the same period a year previously.
• 15 trusts had a 'lower than expected' SHMI value, the same number of trusts as for the same period a year previously.
• 119 trusts had an 'as expected' SHMI value, compared to 116 trusts for the same period a year previously.
Notes:
1. Following the closure of South London Healthcare NHS Trust (RYQ) on 30 September 2013, the activity previously undertaken by this trust has now transferred to the following three trusts: King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJZ), Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (RJ2) and Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust (RPG). King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJZ) and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (RJ2) are reported in the SHMI. However, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust (RPG) is a community trust and is therefore excluded from the SHMI.
As part of the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data cleaning processes, checks are carried out to ensure that all records have a trust code which is open and valid using reference data supplied by the Organisation Data Service (ODS). South London Healthcare NHS Trust (RYQ) is now listed as a closed trust by ODS. Therefore, all activity previously submitted by South London Healthcare NHS Trust (RYQ) for the financial year 2013-14 has not been included in the provisional 2013-14 HES data from the month 8 publication onwards. Further details are provided in the corresponding HES Admitted Patient Care data quality notes (see Related Links). The HSCIC's HES data quality team and ODS are working to implement rules to map the activity for closed organisations to the responsible providers as part of the HES data cleaning processes prior to the publication of finalised HES data for 2013-14.
This has a negligible impact on the SHMI at national level. However, because the SHMI is published to be reflective of current organisational structures, the SHMI values for King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJZ) and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (RJ2) will be based on incomplete data and should therefore be interpreted with caution.
2. There is a shortfall in the number of records for The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust (provider code RKE) in the provisional 2013-14 Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data which has been used to produce the July 2014 SHMI publication covering the reporting period January 2013 to December 2013. Further details are provided in the corresponding HES Admitted Patient Care data quality notes (see Related Links). This has a negligible impact on the SHMI at national level. However, the SHMI value for The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust will be based on incomplete data and should therefore be interpreted with caution.
3. It has come to our attention that there may be several trusts who are unable to record still births with a discharge method of 'Baby was still born' on their patient administration system (PAS) and are instead coding these records with a discharge method of 'Died'. This means that such records will be included in the calculation of the SHMI where they should have been excluded. We are currently reviewing this issue with initial investigations suggesting that the impact on the overall SHMI value for affected trusts is small.
4. The HSCIC is aware that there may be an impact of the present SHMI methodology on the SHMI value for integrated acute and community trusts. This is because activity from both acute and community sites at integrated trusts is included in the calculation of the SHMI, while activity from trusts which only provide community services is excluded. The HSCIC is investigating ways in which community activity for integrated trusts can be identified in the underlying data set and will continue to review this issue with the SHMI Technical Working Group.
5. The total number of trusts has decreased by one from the same period a year previously due to the closure of trust RYQ - South London Healthcare NHS Trust.
