NICOR: National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research

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National Heart Failure Audit

Launched in July 2007, the National Heart Failure Audit aims to provide national comparative data to help clinicians and managers improve the quality of heart failure services and outcomes for patients. The audit is managed by NICOR with specialist knowledge provided by the British Society for Heart Failure. The National Heart Failure Audit is part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), and is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP).

Audit findings can be used in various ways to bring about improvements:

• Improving standards of care: Access to national comparative data allows clinicians, healthcare professionals, cardiac networks and commissioners to examine key aspects of the quality of care and impact on patient outcomes and quality of life, and enables them to implement change accordingly.
• Patient choice: Information can be used to assist patients in making decisions about how, when and where they get treated.
• Effective commissioning: Audit data can inform NHS commissioners of the quality of acute services so they can purchase more care from units providing evidence based care, with reduced waiting times and readmissions, and with the best outcomes for patients. Audit findings can also highlight postcode lottery in commissioning policy between PCTs.

Measuring quality

Data from the audit is included in three sets of indicators that are used to measure quality and performance by NHS and regulatory bodies:

• The Care Quality Commission The CQC uses data from the National Heart Failure Audit to monitor compliance with the essential standards of quality and safety set out in Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2008 and the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009.
• Department of Health Quality Accounts 2011/12: In their Quality Account providers must report which of the national clinical audits they participated in, and must also show in how they responded to the recommendations made in the audit reports. This information is published annually and made available to the public, in order to ensure the accountability of NHS institutions to the public, and to engage the leaders of hospitals in the quality improvement agenda of their organisation.
• The NHS Information Centre: The NHS Information Centre Indicators for Quality Improvement are a library of clinician assured national quality indicators designed to to help local clinical teams select indicators for local quality improvement.

Contact

National Heart Failure Audit
NICOR
3rd Floor, 170 Tottenham Court Road
London
W1T 7HA

For any clinical queries, or general questions about the audit, contact Polly Mitchell (National Heart Failure Audit project manager):

Tel: 0203 108 3927
Email: polly.mitchell@ucl.ac.uk

For all technical enquiries please contact the NICOR helpdesk:

Tel: 0203 108 1978
Email: nicor-helpdesk@ucl.ac.uk