Product category:
Protection
News Release from: BUPA | Subject: Protection
Edited by the Insidemoneytalk Editorial
Team on 14 September 2007
Independent sector must take the lead in
establishing a 'level playing field'
Independent hospitals should publish clinical performance indicators, and collect the same activity as NHS hospitals to help enable choice for patients and commissioners, says BUPA
Speaking today at the Independent Healthcare Convention, Dr Vallance-Owen called for independent and NHS hospitals to establish common and agreed definitions for performance indicators and for all hospitals, over time, to contribute fully to the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) dataset Importantly, he suggested that performance indicators should go beyond failure statistics on death rates, infections and complaints to include success rates through patient reported outcomes, measuring health gain from treatment, and patient satisfaction levels
This article was originally published on Insidemoneytalk on 28 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Addressing a session on information at Laing and Buisson's convention, Dr Vallance-Owen said, "It is high time that we started routinely measuring success as well as failure in healthcare".
"This information is essential if hospitals are to provide meaningful indicators for treatments where patients want to know more than whether they are likely to be alive or dead at the end of the process".
""Success rates would drive continuous quality improvement, help patients and their GPs make more informed choices, and help move the productivity discussion from measure of output to the much more relevant measure of outcome, which is actually what healthcare is all about." Dr Vallance-Owen told the convention of healthcare analysts that the independent sector should lead the way in publishing an agreed set of clinical performance indicators because it has the ability to move more quickly than the NHS.
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The long-term aim, however, should be for all hospitals to collect and publish the same set of indicators, bringing to an end the significant gaps that currently exist in the UK 's healthcare statistics".
"Dr Vallance-Owen said, "Our long-term aim should be the establishment of a level-playing field in data collection across both the independent and public healthcare sectors.
This is the only way for us to establish a complete picture of health and social care delivery in the UK ".
""The benefits of achieving this complete picture would be significant".
"Commissioners would, for the first time, be able to compare both independent and NHS hospitals in their local area and make sensible and cost effective purchasing decisions for their local communities." Dr Vallance-Owen concluded that "Agreeing on a set of performance indicators would help to bring greater transparency to UK healthcare industry of the future." Notes: Dr Vallance-Owen is available for interview.
For further information please contact: Melissa Suggitt PR Manager BUPA Corporate Communications T: 020 7656 2646 E: suggittm@bupa.com About BUPA: BUPA is the UK market leader in health and care with a strong international presence.
It has 8 million customers in 180 countries and 44,000 employees.
Its main interests are health insurance, care homes for older people and young disabled, health assessments, workplace health and childcare services.
Sanitas in Spain , HBA in Australia , IHI in Denmark and Amedex in the US are all part of the BUPA Group.
BUPA reinvests all its surpluses back into the business.
The BUPA Foundation is an independent charity which funds medical research.
12 September 2007.
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