Data validation

NICOR's mission is to provide accurate data on cardiovascular outcomes for the pubic, healthcare providers, and the medical profession. To achieve this, NICOR provides data quality reports to the hospitals submitting to the audit. This helps doctors and data managers to check the data, and make corrections if necessary.

For the National Adult Cardiac Surgery Audit, this involves feeding back detailed information, as spreadsheets and charts, to hospitals within a designated validation period. After the reports are sent, hospitals are given the opportunity to review and resubmit data if any issues are identified. Updated reports are sent to confirm what will be published before it is placed in the public domain.  See Reporting Section

It can take a considerable amount of time and resource for hospitals to effectively validate data, the accuracy of which is vital for the monitoring and improvement of patient care. To support hospitals to meaningfully engage with their data, NICOR reports include analysis of risk profiles and clinical outcomes. This shows how results compare to the national averages, and whether they are within the 'expected range' based on that average. Variation can be caused for a number of reasons, such as specialist practice or data accuracy issues. The cause of variation outside this range, and any steps needed to address it, can then be identified within the hospital. This process will involve looking at the audit analysis in the context of local information and knowledge.  

NICOR is dedicated to learning lessons, and improving validation mechanisms. As audit data are used increasingly for publication and professional appraisal, NICOR will work with submitting hospitals to ensure that as much assistance as possible is given to the hospitals and doctors responsible for submitting accurate and complete data.