Clinical coding award in offing for Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust

The awards programme, which is in its eleventh year, recognises excellence in clinical coding.

Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust is one of five trusts to be shortlisted, following an assessment of all hospitals in the UK, against a number of criteria, including standards of completeness, accuracy and level of detail.

The others in the shortlist are Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, East Cheshire NHS Trust, and North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust. The winner will be announced on 10 May in London. The winner will be announced on 10 May in London.

The indicators used for 2011 were percentage of uncoded episodes, percentage of episodes coded with signs and symptoms as a primary diagnosis, depth of coding, percentage of invalid codes (generating HRGs in the “U” category), number of episodes with blank or invalid specialty code, and number of episodes with blank or invalid consultant code.