22 July 2005

The Healthcare Commission’s online data ratification tool, which enables all Health Trusts in England to ratify the data required for the Trust Star Ratings Evaluation, has been further enhanced by Connect Internet Solutions.

The website and newly enhanced web- based tool have been developed by Connect Internet Solutions to assist with the highly important Trust Star Ratings Evaluation. This is an annual assessment that measures each trust’s performance against key indicators which include capability and capacity, clinical focus and patient focus. Within each of these areas are numerous items against which each trust is rated, such as hospital cleanliness.

Authorised users from each trust can view the data collected by the Healthcare Commission, which relates to their own specific targets and relevant areas of focus, via a password protected interface on a secure environment.

Aside from being able to view the data relating to individual key targets the user is able to query and / or comment on individual data items using the data ratification tool. This query or comment is then passed to the Healthcare Commission’s internal query management system, where it is forwarded to the appropriate contact for action. A code identifying each query, its originator and its recipient, enables a full audit trail to be kept of the entire process.

The online ratification tool was developed by Connect in 2004 replacing the manual process in place previously. The latest version of this web-based tool enables comments to be added under each indicator by the Health Commission and provides a more sophisticated solution to the submission of queries – further improving levels of efficiency.

Developed to a high specification, this data-base driven system is exceptionally robust – effectively handling the high number of queries (over 300 a week) that are submitted by some of the 500 participating health authorities.

Carole Boardman, Director (Public Sector) of Connect Internet Solutions, comments, “It’s really satisfying to be able to use our in-house expertise to assist with the implementation of such an important and high profile initiative as the Trust Star Ratings Evaluation, by providing a solution which greatly increases the efficiency of the data ratification process and making the whole process easier to manage from start to finish. For such a high profile national process, delivering on time and to budget is critical, and I am delighted to say that Connect succeeded in doing both”