PCOC Data Quality Reports Education Guide
- Arjun Radhakrishnan (Unlicensed)
- Meg Blanchard (Unlicensed)
Overview
The PCOC Data Quality Report (DQR) contains information relating to the extracts submitted PCOC extracts.
It includes three main areas:
Scope Details
Report summary
Data Item Errors.
The Data Item Errors are then split into five sections for correction or review.
•Section 3 - Missing clinical items
•Section 5 - Internal items (PCOC only)
This document provides an explanation of each of the areas and sections included in the PCOC DQR.
If corrections are made, data should be extracted from the IT system again and resubmitted to PCOC to ensure the most up-to-date data is included in reports to ensure the highest data quality.
Scope Details
The scope details for a Data Quality Report can be found in the top left-hand corner of page 1.
It includes:
•Report Date: The date that the PCOC extract was submitted and date the DQR was produced
•Service ID: Unique service identifier assigned by PCOC
•Service Name: The name of the palliative care service
•Date Range: The time period/data scope (i.e. start and end dates) that will be applied to data from the extracts to determine which will be included in the DQR and the outcome report
•Episodes: The number of inpatient, community, and ambulatory episodes that are within the date range (Not only those that are valid)
•IT system: The IT System (in PCOC records) that the service uses to collect and extract PCOC information
Please check Episodes and IT systems in particular to make sure these are correct
Report Summary
This section gives a summary of the volume of data submitted. It includes:
Level: Relates to the type of extract submitted and corresponding ‘data-level information’. For version 3 of the PCOC dataset, patient, episode and phase extracts are required. Assessment and profile extracts are optional.
Filename: The filenames of each extract. These files often include the date and time the extract was created.
Total, In Range and Valid data:
Total: the total number of records included in the extract file
In range: the number of records that are determined to be In Range as specified by the ‘Scope details’
Valid: the number of records that are Valid after PCOC data quality checks
If there are a large number of errors in the DQR, please check that the extracts:
Are submitted to the correct submission field (i.e. Patient to Patient, Episode to Episode, Phase to Phase)
All the extracts were created on the same date, if not, create a new set of extracts and resubmit
Data Item Errors
This area of the DQR includes errors found in the checking process. Data Item Errors are split into 5 sections:
•Section 1 - Data Item Errors
•Section 2 - Missing Items
•Section 3 - Missing Clinical Items
•Section 4 - For Review
•Section 5 - Internal Items (PCOC only)
These sections each have the following details, listed left to right, for each recorded error:
Item on the table | Definition |
|---|---|
Patient | The patient ID that the error relates to |
Ep. Start | The episode start date/Episode ID of the episode |
Ph. Start | The phase start date of the phase |
Level | The data level/extract that this error relates to e.g. patient, episode or phase |
Data Item | The specific data item where there is an error |
Description | A description of the specific error that is occurring (e.g. missing value) |
Value | The response provided for that item in the data extract |
Severity | Indicates how this error may affect the reporting of this data item |
Line | Refers to the line that the record sits in the data extract file |
Type of error severity
Record errors - invalidate an entire record. This means that the episode and all associated phases are removed from the dataset. You can see how many additional phases are removed in section 5 of the data quality report.
Variable errors - invalidate the response to that item and only the response is excluded from the report
Variable missing - the response for that variable is missing and therefore cannot be included in the dataset
Variable warning - the response for that variable is for review only. The variable is not incorrect but we frequently see missing or inconsistent responses and so it is flagged for review. If this response is correct, no further action is required.
Section 1 – Data item errors
This section includes errors that indicate an invalid record or variable. The severity of these errors helps to determine what data will be excluded from the report, if not corrected.
Common errors for this section a description and proposed solutions are provided in:
Common Section 1 data errors (Part 1)
Common Section 1 data errors (Part 2)
Section 2 – Missing items
This section includes a list of items where the value was missing from the extract (i.e. it was left blank) when a response was required. Missing values can exist for items in the patient, episode, phase and profile extracts.
Section 3 – Missing clinical items
This section includes a list of clinical items where the value was missing from the phase extract (i.e. it was left blank) when a response was required.
Section 4 – For review
This section includes any episodes that are still open in the extract (i.e. an episode end date has not been entered). Patient ID and Episode Start Date are provided to assist in identifying these episodes. Depending on the practices within the service, it is worthwhile checking that these are indeed current patients and if so, no further action is required. If the patient has died or left the service, episode end information should be completed.
It is expected that most services will have open episodes whenever they make a data submission. It is more common for community settings to have a long list for review as the average episode length is longer and therefore it is more likely they will have episodes that start in the reporting period but have not ended by the end of the reporting period.
Section 5 – Cross Reference errors (PCOC Internal use)
This section includes information about records that cannot be linked between the patient, episode and phase extracts.
This section is for PCOC staff and does not need to be addressed by service staff.
These errors are often resolved once Section 1 errors are addressed.
Common Section 1 data errors
No | Error | Possible solution |
1 | Item responses are not within the PCOC code set
| Your data entry software must be updated to be in line with the PCOC code set.
For NSW services - Raise a SARA ticket to log incorrect code set OTHERWISE Liaise with IT provider
|
2 | Dates are not in the correct order;
| Check the patient records and update the dates entered to align with the PCOC protocol |
3 | Episode End Mode should be consistent with Phase End Reason, if the Phase End Reason is death then the Episode End Mode should also be death, similar with discharge
| Check the patient records and update the Episode End Mode or the Phase End Reason. |
4 | Two or more phases of the same type following directly after each other
| If possible, combine the two phases into a single phase to resolve this error |
5 | Duplicate record – when the same episode (or phase) is repeated | Check in your system if there is a duplicate variable and remove before the subsequent submission |
6 | Mismatch between episode start date and first phase date | check that the episode start date is the same as the first phase date |
7 | First phase start date doesn’t match the episode start date
| Check the patient record and determine which date is correct and update accordingly. With some IT systems, it is not possible to change the phase date, so changing the episode start date may be the solution. |
8 | Final phase end date doesn’t match the episode end date
| Check the patient record to determine which date is correct and update accordingly. With some IT systems, it is not possible to change the phase date, so changing the episode end date may be the solution |
9 | Start date for a subsequent phase should match the end date for the previous phase
| Check the patient record and change whichever date is incorrect |
10 | If there’s a subsequent phase, then the phase end reason for the current phase matches the phase type for the subsequent phase
| Change the phase end reason to the following phase type |
11 | Episode Start Date must be on or after Episode End Date for the previous Episode | Check the patient record to determine which date is correct and update accordingly |
12 | Data Item: Critical Data Item Missing | One of the mandatory items has not been provided, please contact your IT systems personnel |
Missing Item errors
For any missing item errors, please refer to the patient record and enter the response for the missing item in your IT system.
Prepared by Blanchard M, Kable L, Radhakrishnan A, Connolly A for the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (2023) Australian Health Services Research Institute (AHSRI), University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia
© PCOC UOW 2020. The intellectual property associated with a suite of resources on this website is owned by the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC), University of Wollongong. PCOC has placed resources in the public domain and is happy for others to use them without charge, modification or development. These resources cannot be modified or developed without the consent of the University.
The PCOC Team
Building 234 | iCEnterprise 1 | Innovation Campus | University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
E: pcoc@uow.edu.auW: https://www.uow.edu.au/ahsri/pcoc/