Quality standard

Quality statement 3: Information exchange

Quality statement 3: Information exchange

Quality statement

People using adult NHS services experience coordinated care with clear and accurate information exchange between relevant health and social care professionals. [2012]

Rationale

For many people care is not about a single visit to a single service. Even for a common condition someone may start with their GP, go to a hospital for tests and then be referred to a service in the community such as physiotherapy. Health and care services may provide high-quality care individually, but may fail people moving between services if they are not working well together with other services. Information needs to be exchanged effectively between services so that care can be coordinated across specialties and between providers.

Quality measures

Structure

Evidence of local arrangements to support coordinated care through clear and accurate information exchange between relevant health and social care professionals.

Data source: Local data collection.

Process

a) Proportion of people staying in hospital who thought that the specialist they saw in hospital had been given all the necessary information about their condition or illness from the person who referred them.

Numerator – the number in the denominator who thought that the specialist they saw in hospital been given all the necessary information about their condition or illness from the person who referred them.

Denominator – the number of people staying overnight in hospital as a planned admission.

Data source: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) Adult inpatient survey. This survey is repeated annually, and results are available for NHS trusts.

b) Proportion of all cancer patients who thought that their GP was given enough information about their condition and the treatment they had at hospital.

Numerator – the number in the denominator who thought that their GP was given enough information about their condition and the treatment they had at the hospital.

Denominator – the number of people with a confirmed primary diagnosis of cancer admitted to hospital as an inpatient or day case for cancer-related treatment.

Data source: Quality Health National Cancer Patient Experience Survey.

Outcome

Evidence from patient experience surveys and feedback that people feel that information about their care was shared clearly and accurately between relevant health and social care professionals.

Data source: Local data collection, for example, local surveys.

What the quality statement means for different audiences

Service providers (such as GPs, hospitals, community services and local authorities) ensure that systems are in place to support coordinated care through clear and accurate information exchange between relevant health and social care professionals.

Health and social care professionals (such as GPs, doctors, nurses and social workers) check if people they are seeing are being cared for by other teams or services. They exchange clear and accurate information for people they are treating across disciplines, services and settings to coordinate a person's care.

Commissioners (such as clinical commissioning groups and NHS England) ensure they commission services that support coordinated care through clear and accurate information exchange between relevant health and social care professionals.

People using NHS services can expect information about their care to be exchanged in a clear and accurate way between relevant health and social care professionals, so that their care is well coordinated with the least possible delay or disruption.