For some time I have questioned why when I print the PCT report to get a set of quarterly data to complete the PCT's LES data forms, I often get slightly different data if I print the forms again a few days later. The differences are not significant but it does reduce my confidence in the data.

I have put it down to comparing "moving targets" but yesterday I printed out the PCT report for Q1 of 2011/12 as the last day of the quarter:- First question on the PCT audit is "no of INR pts this quarter". The RAT PCT audit shows "total pts registered in a quarter". It defaults to last quarter-I thought on 30th June it would give me April-May-June but it gave me Jan-Feb-March again. I presume if I run it again today I will get Apr to June Qr, however I did notice that the regd pts figure for Jan to Mar was 190 and the PCT report printed in early April only showed 188. It states on the report that it is both active and archived pts added together so taking a later report of the same data should give exactly the same figure, so why is it 2 pts adrift? I can see on the monthly data that Jan & Feb are the same on both reports but March showed as 181 pts on the APril report and 183 on the 30th June report. Which probably means I underclaimed slightly on my LES figures for last year. Not a lot in money terms but variations like this do make me question overall reliability.

Dear John,
RAT always runs the audit data for the previous 3 months after the quarter has finished. This is in case an INR has been entered late in the day on the last day of the quarter. That is why you got the audit data for the previous quarter on the 30th June.

The most likely reason for the discrepancy of 2 patients registered on the March figures is that 2 new warfarin patients were added to your RAT system after your first audit run who have had a start date entered in March.
These new patients could have been hospital discharges with a start date in March, or may have been a new warfarin patient and had a retrospective data entered.

RAT does not count registered patients from when they were put on the system but rather when they started warfarin, i.e. their start date, hence the discrepancy.


You are quite right about the 'moving targets'. Patients can get added/archived/unarchived/deleted between 2 audit runs.

I have not changed the search criteria for the audits for a least 12 years!
I do get a cold sweat if I think they might be wrong.
Our practice claim for about 200 patients per quarter.
They better be right!

Please let me know if you can see any problems with this or other erratic results.

Regards
Colm

Dear John,
RAT always runs the audit data for the previous 3 months after the quarter has finished. This is in case an INR has been entered late in the day on the last day of the quarter. That is why you got the audit data for the previous quarter on the 30th June.

The most likely reason for the discrepancy of 2 patients registered on the March figures is that 2 new warfarin patients were added to your RAT system after your first audit run who have had a start date entered in March.
These new patients could have been hospital discharges with a start date in March, or may have been a new warfarin patient and had a retrospective data entered.

RAT does not count registered patients from when they were put on the system but rather when they started warfarin, i.e. their start date, hence the discrepancy.


You are quite right about the 'moving targets'. Patients can get added/archived/unarchived/deleted between 2 audit runs.

I have not changed the search criteria for the audits for a least 12 years!
I do get a cold sweat if I think they might be wrong.
Our practice claim for about 200 patients per quarter.
They better be right!

Please let me know if you can see any problems with this or other erratic results.

Regards
Colm