Deadline for Locking Year 2 Patient Data
As we are now only three weeks away from the end of November and the commencement of Year 3 of the NELA Patient Audit, we would like to once again reiterate the importance of completing and locking all cases on the web tool that were entered during the second year of the audit. Our second Patient Report will focus on procedures that took place from December 2014 until the last day of November 2015 and we are giving hospitals until Friday the 15th of January 2016 to ensure that all these cases are locked and exportable by the Project Team.
For our second Patient Report we will once again be producing comparative hospital data on cases ascertainment rates. Cases will only be considered completed if they have been entered and locked. Any unlocked cases will adversely affect the case ascertainment rate reported for participating hospitals. For instance, if a hospital has entered all of its expected cases, but 20% of them are unlocked, the site will only be able to show a maximum of 80% case ascertainment. It is therefore imperative that all cases on the web tool for procedures that took place during Year 2 are locked by the 15th of January 2016 deadline.
There are currently over 6,000 unlocked Year 2 cases on the web tool, cases that at this time would not be eligible for inclusion in the audit. Hours of hard work have gone into collecting and entering patient data for these cases and so it's extremely important for us that this work does not go to waste. We're asking therefore that over the next few weeks participating hospitals go through their incomplete cases so as to complete and lock as many of them as possible. Many hospitals will also have patient cases that are eligible for inclusion but have not yet been started on the web tool; it is imperative that these are also entered and completed as soon as possible so that there is time for them to be locked before the mid-January deadline.
Additionally please keep in mind that as we begin the process of completing the last of the incomplete cases on the web tool, the 1st of December 2015 also marks the beginning of the third year of the patient audit. Remember that NELA is an ongoing audit and that the data collection process is scheduled to continue as usual going into 2016.
