MARKERS OF DATA QUALITY IN COMPUTER AUDIT - THE MANCHESTER ORTHOPEDICDATABASE

This study investigates the efficiency of the Manchester Orthopaedic D atabase (MOD), a computer software package for record collection and a udit. Data is entered into the system in the form of diagnostic, opera tive and complication keywords. We have calculated the completeness, a ccuracy and quality (completeness X accuracy) of keyword data in the M OD in two departments of orthopaedics (Departments A and B). In each d epartment, 100 sets of inpatient notes were reviewed. Department B obt ained results which were significantly better than those in A at the 5 % level. We attribute this to the presence of a systems coordinator to motivate and organise the team for audit. Senior and junior staff did not differ significantly with respect to completeness, accuracy and q uality measures, but locum junior staff recorded data with a quality o f 0%. Statistically, the biggest difference between the departments wa s the quality of operation keywords. Sample sizes were too small to pe rmit effective statistical comparisons between the quality of complica tion keywords. In both departments, however, the poorest quality data was seen in complication keywords. The low complication keyword comple teness contributed to this; on average, the true complication rate (39 %) was twice the recorded complication rate (17%). In the recent Royal College of Surgeons of England Confidential Comparative Audit, the re corded complication rate was 4.7%. In the light of the above findings, we suggest that the true complication rate of the RCS CCA should appr oach 9%.