Structured yet simple approaches to primary care data quality improvements can indeed strike gold

Abstract

General practice data provide important opportunities for both population health and within-practice initiatives to improve health. Despite its promise, a lack of accuracy affects the use of such data. The Sentinel Practices Data Sourcing (SPDS) project is a structured chronic disease surveillance and data quality improvement strategy in general practice. A mixed-methods approach was used to evaluate data quality improvement in 99 participating practices over 12 months. Quantitative data were obtained by measuring performance against 10 defined indicators, whereas 48 semi-structured interviews provided qualitative data. Aggregated scores demonstrated improvements in all indicators, ranging from minor to substantially significant improvements. Participants reported positively on levels of support provided, and acquisition of new knowledge and skills relating to data entry and cleansing. This evaluation provides evidence of the effectiveness of a structured approach to improve the quality of primary care data. Investing in this targeted intervention has the potential to create sustained improvements in data quality, which can drive clinical practice improvement.

Protocol for a Delphi consensus study to select indicators of high-quality general practice to achieve Quality Equity and Systems Transformation in Primary Health Care (QUEST-PHC) in Australia

“…They also collect and collate other general practice data from extraction of de-identified data from individual practice-based patient records [ 5 ]. However, there is a lack of consistency across PHNs in data content, variability in the quality of the data collected and also in the quality improvement outcomes achieved through this process [ 7 ].…”

“…A general practice indicator is “a measurable element of practice performance for which there is evidence or consensus that it can be used to assess the quality, and hence change in the quality, of care provided” [ 8 ]. A set of standardized and evidence-based indicators to measure and track high quality clinical performance and outcomes in general practice is necessary, not only for the profession’s accountability, but also for identifying population needs and gaps in the quality of care received by patients across Australia [ 7 , 9 ]. Whilst the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards for General Practices underpin accreditation, they are minimum standards for benchmarking purposes [ 4 , 6 ].…”