Wrexham Maelor Hospital commended for commitment to patient safety by the National Joint Registry

The Wrexham Maelor Hospital has been awarded a ‘Quality Data Provider’ certificate after successfully completing a national programme of local data audits and meeting a number of targets related to patient safety.

The National Joint Registry (NJR), monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations to improve clinical outcomes primarily for the benefit of patients, but also to support orthopaedic clinicians and industry manufacturers.

The registry collects high quality orthopaedic data in order to provide evidence to support patient safety, standards in quality of care, and overall cost-effectiveness in joint replacement surgery. The ‘NJR Quality Data Provider’ certificate scheme was introduced to offer hospitals a blueprint for reaching high quality standards relating to patient safety and to reward those who have met registry targets.

In order to achieve the award, hospitals are required to meet a series of six ambitious targets during the audit period 2019/20. One of the targets which hospitals are required to complete is compliance with the NJR’s mandatory national audit aimed at assessing data completeness and quality within the registry.

The NJR Data Quality Audit investigates the accurate number of joint replacement procedures submitted to the registry compared to the number carried out and recorded in the local hospital Patient Administration System. The audit ensures that the NJR is collecting and reporting upon the most complete, accurate data possible across all hospitals performing joint replacement operations, including Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

NJR targets also include having a high level of patients consenting for their details to be included in the registry and for hospitals to demonstrate timely responses to any alerts issued by the NJR in relation to potential patient safety concerns.

Trauma and Orthopaedics Consultant Ian Starks, from Wrexham Maelor Hospital, said: “We’re delighted to receive this certificate, improving patient safety is very important to us, and whilst the ‘NJR Quality Data Provider’ certificate recognises the hard work of our department in meeting the NJR requirements, special thanks must go to Alice Eyre for all the hard work she has put into the data collection and processing.”

National Joint Registry Medical Director, Mr Tim Wilton, said: “Congratulations to colleagues at Wrexham Maelor Hospital. The Quality Data Provider Award demonstrates the high standards being met towards ensuring compliance with the NJR and is often a reflection of strong departmental efforts to achieve such status.

“Registry data now provides an important source of evidence for regulators, such as the Care Quality Commission, to inform their judgements about services, as well as being a fundamental driver to inform improved quality of care for patients.”