Improving health care data quality: A practitioner's perspective

Health care is increasingly an information-driven activity, and therefore, the quality of the underlying data assumes critical importance. This paper identifies the origins and characteristics of health data, and surveys their acquisition and usage in the delivery and planning of modern health care. The factors that influence data quality are discussed, together with an assessment of the main quality issues and a rigorous account of strategies for improving data quality, including a review of various national strategies. The study exposes the theoretical foundations and practicalities of health data quality enhancement and demonstrates the significant benefits that a data quality improvement strategy can bring across the whole spectrum of health care.

[1]  R. Stockdale,et al.  Data Quality Information and Decision Making: A Healthcare Case Study , 2007 .

[2]  Vimla L. Patel,et al.  Impact of a computer-based patient record system on data collection, knowledge organization, and reasoning. , 2000, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA.

[3]  Sebastian Garde,et al.  Health Informatics: An Overview , 2010 .

[4]  Virginia K. Saba,et al.  Essentials of Computers for Nurses , 1986 .

[5]  L. Lorenzoni,et al.  The quality of abstracting medical information from the medical record: the impact of training programmes. , 1999, International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care.

[6]  Mark Adams,et al.  Improving the quality of data in your database: lessons from a cardiovascular center. , 2004, Joint Commission journal on quality and safety.

[7]  Edward H. Shortliffe,et al.  Medical data: their acquisition, storage, and use , 1990 .

[8]  Barry Eaglestone,et al.  Data Quality Issues in Electronic Health Records: An Adaptation Framework for the Greek Health System , 2004, Health Informatics J..

[9]  M Pringle,et al.  Non-invasive methods for measuring data quality in general practice. , 2001, The New Zealand medical journal.

[10]  Judith A. Effken,et al.  Different lenses, improved outcomes: a new approach to the analysis and design of healthcare information systems , 2002, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[11]  S. Ruberg,et al.  Paradigm shifts in clinical trials enabled by information technology , 2001, Statistics in medicine.

[12]  L. Weed,et al.  New Premises and New Tools for Medical Care and Medical Education , 1989, Methods of Information in Medicine.

[13]  T. Adams,et al.  Lessons from the central Hampshire electronic health record pilot project:evaluation of the electronic health record for supporting patient care and secondary analysis , 2004, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[14]  Martin Dugas,et al.  XML-based Visual Data Mining in Medicine , 2001, MedInfo.

[15]  A Savill,et al.  Information in practice Integrated record keeping as an essential aspect of a primary care led health service , 1998 .

[16]  J. Steiner,et al.  Immunization registry accuracy: improvement with progressive clinical application. , 2003, American journal of preventive medicine.

[17]  Shan Cretin,et al.  How to evaluate and improve the quality and credibility of an outcomes database: validation and feedback study on the UK Cardiac Surgery Experience , 2003, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[18]  K. Ryan,et al.  Universal electronic health records: a qualitative study of lay perspectives , 2004 .

[19]  James A. Menke,et al.  Computerized clinical documentation system in the pediatric intensive care unit , 2001, BMC Medical Informatics Decis. Mak..

[20]  Raymond G. Carey,et al.  Measuring Quality Improvement in Healthcare: A Guide to Statistical Process Control Applications , 2000 .

[21]  Jack E. Olson,et al.  Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension , 2003 .

[22]  Jennifer Long,et al.  A New Method for Database Data Quality Evaluation at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) , 2002, ICIQ.

[23]  M. Musen,et al.  Handbook of Medical Informatics , 2002 .

[24]  Reza Khorramshahgol,et al.  Hospital information systems quality: a customer satisfaction assessment tool , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[25]  Robert L. Leitheiser,et al.  Data quality in health care data warehouse environments , 2001, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[26]  Diane M. Strong,et al.  Process-Embedded Data Integrity , 2004, J. Database Manag..

[27]  K. Thiru,et al.  Systematic review of scope and quality of electronic patient record data in primary care , 2003, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[28]  Alan D. Lopez,et al.  Monitoring global health: time for new solutions , 2005, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[29]  A. Macfarlane,et al.  Identifying problems with data collection at a local level: survey of NHS maternity units in England , 1999, BMJ.

[30]  Nicolette de Keizer,et al.  Model Formulation: Defining and Improving Data Quality in Medical Registries: A Literature Review, Case Study, and Generic Framework , 2002, J. Am. Medical Informatics Assoc..

[31]  SIMON DE LUSIGNAN,et al.  Research Paper: Does Feedback Improve the Quality of Computerized Medical Records in Primary Care? , 2002, J. Am. Medical Informatics Assoc..

[32]  Daniel P. Lorence,et al.  Adoption of information quality management practices in US healthcare organizations: A national assessment , 2002 .

[33]  L. Kohn,et al.  To Err Is Human : Building a Safer Health System , 2007 .

[34]  Marion J Ball,et al.  IT, patient safety, and quality care. , 2002, Journal of healthcare information management : JHIM.

[35]  Kenneth D. Mandl,et al.  Data quality and the electronic medical record: a role for direct parental data entry , 1999, AMIA.

[36]  David W. Bates,et al.  Bmc Medical Informatics and Decision Making the Quality Case for Information Technology in Healthcare , 2002 .

[37]  G. P. Croft,et al.  The RCP Information Laboratory (iLab): breaking the cycle of poor data quality. , 2005, Clinical medicine.