The Health Information and Quality Authority has today published What you should know about Data Quality. This useful guide for front-line health and social care staff is a first step in raising awareness about the importance of data quality as part of the process of providing safe and effective services.

The guide includes a broad overview of data quality issues around personal health information in the Irish health and social care setting and is aimed at helping front-line staff ensure that the information they collect on patients is of the highest quality possible.

Professor Jane Grimson, Director of Health Information and Deputy Chief Executive of HIQA, said: “Safe, reliable health and social care depends on access to and use of quality data. Accurate and up-to-date data is critical for providing high quality clinical and social care and also for research, health service planning and the management of health and social care services.”

“Poor data quality has a substantial impact on the safety of service users. Therefore, data quality is the responsibility of all health and social care staff – not just the clinical staff, data quality manager, records management or the IT department. Various people, with the appropriate confidentiality safeguards, will use health or social care data and it is vital that data users have confidence in the quality of the data they use. This guide explains in clear language how to go about achieving that, and how to assess an organisation’s data quality.”

The guide has been published on the Authority’s website, www.hiqa.ie and is being distributed to 10,000 health and social care staff around the country. It is also being made available at this week’s Healthcare Informatics Society of Ireland 17th Annual HISI Conference in Dublin.

Professor Grimson concluded: “The collection of information should not impose an additional burden on the health and social care system; it should be collected as a routine part of the job. Data quality is the responsibility of all staff and achieving data quality takes time and commitment at all levels of an organisation. Management should show a commitment to the data quality concept and drive data quality initiatives, especially as the personal and financial implications of poor quality data can directly affect patient care. Improving data quality will drive safer better care for all people using our health and social care services.”

Further Information: 

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, Health Information and Quality Authority, 01 814 7481/ 086 244 7623/ mwhelan@hiqa.ie