ROLE OF THE ASSESSOR

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ROLE OF THE ASSESSOR

• IMT DES Data Accreditation Conference
• London
• 12.9.06

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• PCOs will need to understand what is required for
  the assessment process. Some of the information
  is provided in this presentation. Other
  information will be provided at the end of the
  assessment pilot process taking place over the
  winter of 2006.

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• PRIMIS will provide a web portal dedicated to
  the IMT DES on which it will publish various
  suggested templates and resources.
• www.primis.nhs.uk/data-accreditation
• This portal will also serve as a repository for
  PCOs to share policies/procedures/templates etc
  as well as links to other sites providing IMT
  DES tools

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• The actual accreditation process is a three part
  process which includes -
• a practice submission
• a quantitative analysis of data taken from the
  practice computer
• a visit that will provide the necessary
  qualitative analysis.

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• The PCT will plan the assessment visit. Medical
  assessors with suitable clinical system knowledge
  will qualitatively assess the quality of the
  recording of the notes against the standards.
• PCTs may choose to use PRIMIS core training to
  train their assessors. It is inappropriate for
  the PRIMIS facilitators to do the assessments
  themselves since they are assisting practices in
  their education and training.

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• It is expected that the assessor will look at a
  cross section of records for every clinician in
  order that a practice standard can be properly
  assessed.
• The goal is not assessing quality of clinical
  care given to patients but the quality of data
  captured (or not).

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• Accreditation would normally be expected to last
  for three years unless there were local reasons
  for the assessors to limit the accreditation to a
  shorter time period for example, if several new
  clinicians recently commenced work.

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• Once the practice has passed the accreditation
  standard it will be eligible to join the NHS care
  record service and to share its patients
  summaries. The list of accredited practices in a
  PCT will be published and available to patients.

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• Assessors wishing to attend the data
  accreditation training are recommended to
  demonstrate prior learning by completing a
  multi-choice questionnaire based around the IMT
  DES, the Good Practice Guidelines, Information
  Governance and clinical coding.

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• The practice will need to produce evidence to
  support the assessment visit.
• Other information can be extracted from the
  clinical system and displayed using the e-audit
  tools provided by PRIMIS.

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• PCOs should inform their practices when the visit
  timetable is available.
• Information should include
• How to access training from local information
  facilitators
• What is the preferred format for submission of
  information to the PCO prior to the assessment
  visit
• Who will see the information presented to the PCO
  
• What should the practices be working towards
• How long will the assessment visit take
• How will practices be able to raise any concerns
  about the assessment visit
• Which staff will the assessors want to speak to
  in the practice

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• Assessor Training - The assessor should be a
  clinician with good health informatics skills.
  They should have a good working knowledge of one
  or more clinical systems.

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• It is likely that there will be three broad tasks
  for assessors
• Reconciling the consultation record with the full
  EPR, including external documents such as
  hospital letters and results of investigations.
• Looking at general issues revealed by the
• e-audit / system searches
• Looking at a specific record highlighted through
  CHART that is an example of a diagnosis/
  treatment mismatch

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• Satisfactory performance of these tasks will
  require a detailed working knowledge of the way
  that GP records are structured

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• The assessment visit may be combined with the
  QOF visits or may be done independently according
  to the resources of the PCO.
• Practices should be given time to prepare for the
  assessment visit and to receive support and
  training

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• The clinical assessors will need the support of
  information facilitators trained in data
  extraction, data interpretation and feedback
  prior to and during the assessment visit.
• Facilitators should not be used in the assessment
  process for practices which they are supporting

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• The assessment will have pass/fail criteria which
  will be refined during the pilot phase of winter
  2006.
• Assessors should attend the free PRIMIS assessor
  training which will incorporate the results of
  the pilot.

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• The report should include
• whether the practice has passed or failed the
  assessment
• how long the assessment is valid for

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• A pilot of the assessment visit process will take
  place over the winter of 2006. There will be
  further guidance issued by NHS Connecting for
  Health which will expand on the visit process and
  how the assessment is done.

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• What will your assessors need?
• What does your PCO want from the assessment
  process?
• How will the process be organised?
• How will you ensure even handedness?

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• QUESTIONS?