Northampton General Hospital awarded for commitment to patient safety by the national joint registry

Anne Favell (Therapy Technical Instructor), Phillip Homer (Elective Orthopaedic Physiotherapist) and Mr Stock (Orthopaedic Consultant) with their award

Northampton General Hospital has successfully completed the national programme of local data audits to improve patient safety.

Phillip Homer, elective orthopaedic physiotherapist at NGH described the importance of the National Joint Registry (NJR) for patients: “Patient safety is at the forefront of everything we do at Northampton General Hospital. By making sure our data is inputted in a timely and accurate way we can help patients to make informed decisions about their treatment as to whether joint replacement is right for them, and if they feel they can get the outcomes they want from their joint replacement.”

The registry collects orthopaedic data to provide evidence to support patient safety, standards in quality of care, and overall cost effectiveness in joint replacement surgery. The NJR monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations in order to improve clinical outcomes for the benefit of patients, clinicians and industry.

National Joint Registry medical director, Mr Martyn Porter, said: “Congratulations to colleagues at Northampton General Hospital. The Quality Data Provider award demonstrates the high standards being met towards ensuring compliance with the NJR and is often a strong reflection of a departmental effort to achieve such status.

“It is clear that for surgeons and patients alike, the necessity for having accurate and complete data is an absolute requirement. The Quality Data Provider award continues to go from strength to strength and highlights the number of hospitals who are now fully engaged with the NJR’s data completeness programme.”

The National Joint Registry Quality Data Provider certificate scheme is designed to offer hospitals a blueprint for reaching standards relating to patient safety and reward those who have met registry targets in this area. For patients this means that their care and treatments are helping to shape the future of joint replacements and through the improved collection of data patients are now receiving even better care.

Full details about the NJR’s Quality Data Provider certificate scheme can be found online at:  www.njrcentre.org.uk.