RJAH recognised for commitment to patient safety

The county’s specialist orthopaedic hospital has been recognised for its high quality standards relating to patient safety and care with an award from the National Joint Registry (NJR) for the second year running.

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) has been named as a Quality Data Provider by the NJR – certifying that it has achieved standards related to patient safety and met registry targets, after completing a national programme of local data audits.

The NJR monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations to improve clinical outcomes for the benefit of patients, clinicians and industry. The registry also 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.

RJAH has gone above and beyond to share and assess intelligence relating to patient outcomes. Examples of this within RJAH, include the Trust working to obtain the NJR’s Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) data. This allows for further information to be shared with clinicians so that they can further assess the outcomes they are giving their patients.

The hospital’s joint replacement surgery is also submitted to the NJR to monitor the performance and outcomes of joint replacement implants and the effectiveness of different types of surgery.

The Trust has also been linking the different implant data recorded within NJR to the Trust’s PROMs data to further assess the different implants given to patients and the outcomes they achieve.

News of the Trust receiving the Quality Data Award came just before the country went into lockdown.

Mr Steve White, Medical Director, said: “Improving patient safety is of the upmost importance and something all our staff take very seriously. I would particularly like to pay tribute to Jo Bidmead, Pre-op Unit Manager; and Fiona MacDonald, Theatres Receptionist; who see the process through form start to finish.

“We fully support the National Joint Registry’s work in facilitating improvement in clinical outcomes and governance for the benefit of joint replacement patients and we’re delighted to be awarded as a NJR Quality Data Provider for the second year running.”

As part of assessments for the Quality Data Provider Award, national quality audits by NJR are undertaken.  These monitor the data completeness and quality within the registry and scored RJAH at 98%, which is seen as an excellent result and well above the 85% target.

Mr Tim Wilton, NJR Medical Director, said: “Congratulations to colleagues at RJAH. 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 (CQC), to inform their judgements about services, as well as being a fundamental driver to inform improved quality of care for patients.”