Using data to drive quality improvement

How can national clinical audit and HQIP’s other resources support you to deliver evidence-informed quality improvement, for maximum impact?

“The extraordinary richness of NHS datasets is largely untapped either in clinical care, service planning, or research” ‘Darzi report’, September 2024

We all recognise the need to continuously improve services to improve patient outcomes. But we also know that the careful balancing act needed to deliver excellent services and manage resources is not easily achieved. As noted by Lord Darzi in his Independent Investigation of the National Health Service in England (Sept 2024), part of the solution lies in using healthcare data to “elevate care quality”.

Quality improvement resources from HQIP

If we have a detailed understanding of what is happening, where and to what extent, then we can adopt a ‘smarter’ approach to quality improvement; we can see where change is needed and where resources need to be directed. Here, we help you to understand how to access the array of data and resources that are available from HQIP to support quality improvement.

Data, reports and evidence

📢 HQIP commissions the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) on behalf of NHS England. With over 40 programmes on a wide range of clinical disciplines – ranging from asthma to vascular care – they offer a wealth of healthcare data to enable changes that can have a real impact on patient outcomes. The resultant reports and infographics provide powerful, clinically curated, data-driven insights into the quality of care:

📢 We also host the National Joint Registry, which records, monitors, analyses and reports on performance outcomes in joint replacement surgery:

  • NJR’s dedicated reports website contains all of the NJR’s Annual Report information, data and analyses on hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement surgery.

Other quality improvement resources

We are committed to supporting the translation of data and evidence into improvement that leads to improved experience and outcomes for patients. As such, we offer a range of support for quality improvement:

  • Benchmarking – the National Clinical Audit Benchmarking (NCAB) site is a public portal of benchmarked results from the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, searchable by project name, trust, hospital or unit
  • Guidance – We have produced a guide to quality improvement which brings together twelve quality improvement methods, providing an overview of each and practical advice on how and when to implement them, with illustrative case examples. All other guidance from HQIP, can be found here.
  • Case studies
  • Quality improvement magazine, with short easy-to-read articles on topics related to quality improvement.

How we can help

As a long-term partner of the NHS, we understand the complex challenges that healthcare providers and commissioners face. We know that effective healthcare improvement requires an evidence-informed approach, as well as ongoing learning, to transform care and improve patient outcomes. Our services include:

Use the links above to find out more about each of our service areas, and we can support you to deliver evidence-informed, patient-centred quality improvement.

National context

To understand more about how our work relates to the national landscape, read HQIP’s blog on Re-establishing quality as an organising principle of the NHS, in response to Lord Darzi’s Independent investigation of the English NHS (autumn 2024).