Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) has become the first and only organisation in Europe to achieve a HIMSS stage six validation for its use of data and its approach to data science.
The Trust, which runs Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and the Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, has achieved the validation for HIMSS’ Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity (AMAM).
HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) is a not-for-profit, global advisor, thought leader and member-based society committed to reforming the global health ecosystem through the power of data and technology.
Its members include 550-plus health services organisations, 430-plus provider organisations, 500-plus not-for-profit partners, and more than 125,000 individuals.
HIMSS validations range from 0-7 and its certifications are arrived at via a series of pre-validation exercises and an on-site visit.
Rob Birkett, CHFT’s Chief Digital and Information Officer, says: “This is deserved recognition for the hard work and team approach across CHFT and our colleagues at The Health Informatics Service.
“The reason why HIMSS is so well thought of is that its validations are approached from a patient centred perspective. It ensures you are using technology and data to improve patient care and safety, patient experience, patient outcomes; that you are you using it to make operational decisions and using data to reshape patient pathways and reconfigure service delivery that benefits patients.
“It’s the culmination of a 10-year journey to embed technology and data science within in our culture. We knew it was the right thing to do and we’ve absolutely stuck with it. We should be very proud of what we've achieved as a Trust - it's not just what we've done, but it's how we've done it.
“There have been benefits all along the way and they have accumulated in the HIMSS level 6 accreditation, which is outstanding.”
The validation put special focus on CHFT’s work around waiting list validation, health inequalities - including learning disabilities - a vulnerability matrix, and the use of predictive modelling to improve outcomes.
The Trust uses data as a core part of its operational decision making, which leads to the reshaping of pathways and the reconfiguration of services - all delivered in partnership with The Health Informatics Service (THIS), which is hosted by the Trust.
Julian Bates, THIS/CHFT Information Director, says he is understandably both delighted and extremely proud of the accreditation.
He says: “We must thank HIMSS for their support throughout the process. The whole assessment day itself went like clockwork. That said, it is really important to acknowledge business intelligence and data science could not have moved forwards the past three to four years as it has without the awesome support and strength within THIS from technical, governance and coding. This accreditation is a well done to all.”
CHFT serves a population of around 440,000 people living across Huddersfield and Halifax; approximately 3,000 of which are patients with a learning disability.
Adopting a data driven approach, CHFT and THIS have developed and implemented a range of tools to identify those with a learning disability, understand their experiences and monitor the difference being made.
This includes a flagging system within CHFT’s Cerner/Oracle Millennium EPR (electronic patient record), a learning disabilities data dashboard and a data model offering comparisons against the general population.
Via the dashboard, any patients with learning disabilities in the hospital at any given time can easily be identified for the best care there and then, reducing the number of too-early discharges and subsequent readmissions.
In another example, CHFT had 10,000 overdue follow-up appointment requests pre-Covid, which more than doubled during the pandemic, peaking at 27,000.
However, the introduction of data-driven validations reduced the list to 23,452 within weeks. Not only a significant reduction but the first since the pandemic.
And predictive analytics prove invaluable in helping hospital teams estimate bed occupancies and departmental staffing requirements.
Rob Birkett: “As we went through the validation process it became clear that no other organisation had achieved a stage six in data analytics in the UK, which is fantastic. But then the HIMSS team did some checks with colleagues across Europe, and they confirmed that no hospital had achieved stage six either, so it's a real credit to the team.”
Now CHFT is preparing for HIMSS validations for its electronic medical record adoption model (EMRAM) and
its infrastructure adoption model (INFRAM), both due to take place later this year
This supports the model of a robust core infrastructure supporting critical and embedded clinical systems, delivering accurate data to support the delivery of patient care.
