Albatross To Host Next National Patient Cost Benchmarking User Group Meeting In The Houses Of Parliament

Online, April 8, 2012 (Newswire.com) - It is our great pleasure to announce that this quarters UGM will take place on Tuesday 22nd May 2012 at the Terrace Marquee at the Houses of Parliament.

Date: Tuesday 22nd May 2012
Location: The Terrace Marquee - Houses of Parliament

The User Group will start at 10:00am - Tea & Coffee will be served on arrival: 10:00 - 10:30am
& finish by no later than 3:30pm

We are pleased to announce that Graham Evans MP for Weaver Vale (local to our office located at the Daresbury Science & Innovation Campus) will be opening the user group and will be giving a short introduction.

Topics on the agenda will include:

An update on HRG Development work by the Health & Social Care information Centre
A discussion on possible links with the HFMA Acute Clinical costing standards group
An update on Project Diamond
An update on PCB release 7.5 and a discussion on the development and timetable for PCB release 8

Why another Benchmarking Service?

o Existing services don't give sufficient detail
o They are not based on agreed standards
o They are usually out of date
o They are inflexible in their analysis
o They cost too much
o They are onerous to populate
o Current cost benchmarking services are restricted to sites using one specific PLICS system, therefore significantly restricting the benchmarking group

The History of the Project to Date:

o First conceived in June 2009 to facilitate comparison between GSTT and KCH
o Initial interest from FD colleagues
o Decision to make the product generally available to other Trusts.
o Aim to address shortfalls of other services by being:

Good value for money, easy to implement, easy to use, flexible and based on national standards

System Functionality:

Facilitates comparison between any number of Trusts
Provides comparison at the following levels:

Specialty
POD
HRG
Procedure Code
Diagnostics Code
Consultant
Episode

Enables cost comparison by Cost Category
Enables cost comparison by D/I/O
Provides a comparison of activity measure (LOS)

Benefits:

Provides clear and transparent cost comparison between Trusts with full drill-down capability across all levels of patient care.

Facilitates better understanding of any variances by analysing cost in line with nationally accepted cost classifications.

Ensures consistency in cost definitions by working closely with the User Group.

Provides a set of standard reports and analysis preconfigured to deliver quick and easy to understand outcomes. (QlikView & Business Objects.)

Enables the user to create any number of user definable reports thus making the system easily configurable to individual requirements.

Facilitates a better understanding of variations in clinical coding practice by comparing Procedure, Diagnostics and HRG combinations across peer groups.