Dear Colleagues attached below press release from NHS Quality Improvement Scotland on latest Clinical Outcome Indicators Report
Best wishes
David McDaid
LSE Health and Social Care
http://www.nhshealthquality.org/nhsqis/qis_NewsIndex.jsp?pContentID=1127&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&
The 140 page Clinical Outcome Indicators Report can be accessed on-line at
http://www.nhshealthquality.org/nhsqis/files/Clinical%20Outcome%20Indicators%20Report.pdf
Press Release from NHS Quality Improvement Scotland 1st December
Key indicators on Scotland's health and the performance of parts of the health service are published today to help focus attention on where improvements are needed.
The figures are published in the latest Clinical Outcome Indicators report, a process that began in Scotland in 1993 to give the public detailed information about health and health services to help achieve the highest standards of care.
The latest report, produced by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, includes information on:
- Obesity in children - rates of obesity in Scottish children are far too high. A third of 12 year-olds in Scotland were overweight in 2001-02, 18% obese and 10-11% severely obese.
- Smoking and pregnancy - more than a quarter of Scottish women smoked at the start of pregnancy. The problem is more common among women from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Breastfeeding - the number of babies breastfed up to at least 6-8 weeks is increasing year on year. However, at 36.5% this is below the target of 50% set for 2005.
- Emergency readmission rates can provide a guide to the success of the original treatment or care. Rates are given for abdominal and pelvic surgery, and joint replacement surgery.
- Emergency admission rates are also included for diabetes, asthma and epilepsy - for the first time at a detailed local level.
- Ovarian cancer - there is relatively little variation across Scotland in incidence and death rates for women diagnosed between 1997-99.
- Anaemia in kidney dialysis patients - the risk of developing anaemia has been reduced for Scottish kidney dialysis patients. At least 76% are now achieving the target levels of haemoglobin concentration (no less than 10 g/dL for patients who have been on dialysis for three months or more). (See Note 3).
This is the 10th in a series of Clinical Outcome Indicator reports. Previous reports have focused attention on unexplained variations in outcomes between different parts of the health service. This has led NHSScotland to look into the reasons for these variations and determine if changes are needed.
This is part of a much wider quality improvement process in Scotland. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland already sets clinical standards in Scotland and measures the performance of the NHS against the standards. On Thursday (December 4) the results of the latest Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality, that reviews all deaths that occur during or after surgery in Scotland, will be published. Recent data from the Scottish Arthroplasty Project, which examines the care given to joint replacement surgery patients, are also available.
The Chairman of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, Lord Naren Patel, said: Scotland has led the way in the use and publication of clinical outcome indicators. This report, the tenth in the series, continues the process of making such detailed information about health and healthcare in Scotland available to the public.
These indicators can provide insights into the quality of care and highlight variations that need further investigation. We expect NHSScotland to use these indicators as one means of examining its performance - and where necessary to take appropriate action.
"NHS Quality Improvement Scotland is committed to building on the experience gained in Scotland over the past ten years, and making available data that can meaningfully contribute towards quality improvement in the health service in Scotland.
ENDS
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