For the third year running it has been awarded the National Joint Registry (NJR) Quality Data Provider Award certificate for the scrupulous way in which it gathers and submits information to support a national safety system for joint replacements.
The NJR is a national body which collects data from all NHS - and private providers - in the country who perform hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacements.
They help make joint replacement surgery safer by encouraging NHS Trusts to achieve the highest possible standards of accuracy when reporting on surgery by meeting stringent standards tested through quality checks.
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Mr Dipen Menon is Kettering General Hospital’s National Joint Registry lead.
He said: “The work that the NJR team do is very important as it enables a very thorough review of the success of the different types of joint replacements on the market, how safe they are, and how often they fail and need to be re-done.
“Achieving the Data Quality Provider certificate for the third year running signifies our commitment to that process, and to our patients, demonstrating that the way we record, monitor, and document all joint replacements are rigorous and up to date.
“I want to thank everyone involved in this work including our clinicians, theatre staff, pre-operative assessment team, the audit team who help us gather and submit the data and the patients who allow us to submit their anonymised data.”
The NJR data can also serve as an early warning system for anything that can go wrong in joint replacement surgery. It also helps surgeons to understand the results of different joint replacements in the long-term and helps them monitor the results of their own operations.
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mr Christos Plakogiannis, who also supports the work, said: “It is a feather in our cap to have achieved this certification for the third year. It demonstrates the continued commitment of KGH’s Orthopaedic team to our patients to do everything we possibly can, to provide safe and effective replacement operations for them.”
National Joint Registry Medical Director, Mr Tim Wilton, said: “Congratulations to colleagues
at Kettering General Hospital. The Quality Data Provider Award demonstrates the high standards being met towards ensuring compliance with the NJR and is often a reflection of strong departmental efforts to achieve such status. “
Hospitals strive to achieve bronze, silver or gold awards for the quality of their data submission. KGH achieved the silver award, which means that it has accurately submitted 97-98.99% of the Kettering hospital data to the NJR.
