Gateshead Health NHS Trust plans to measure key clinical
indicators such as waiting times and hospital re-admissions using
business intelligence software.
Earlier this month an Audit Commission report said poor hospital IT
had contributed to errors in the reporting of waiting list data.
Gateshead Health NHS Trust will use software from Cognos to provide
managers with more effective performance data.
Lorraine Gray, head of information and data quality at the trust,
said, "The system has just been rolled out, so it is still in its
infancy, but it is an exciting project to be involved in. It will
allow us to monitor our current performance against previous
months, quarters and years."
The first parts of the software to go live deal with clinical
indicators such as re-admissions to hospital following discharge.
Officials at the trust said the software will be extended to cover
a wide range of indicators including accident and emergency waiting
times, cancelled operations and cancer waiting lists.
Gateshead, which is currently rated as a "two-star" NHS trust, is
striving to hit the government's top "three-star" performance
rating.
Trust chief executive Chris Reed said, "In the past it would often
take weeks or months to pull together performance management
reports. Now managers can run reports almost instantly via a
web-based interface to analyse performance in a wide range of key
areas."