Exploring Regional Linked Data Capability for Research Phase 2: Exploring Variation in Acute Hospital Admissions

No existing national data feeds provide detailed and near-real time information on hospital admissions across the UK. Currently available national data feeds are dated, do not include people still in hospital, and lack detailed coding which can help differentiate between different conditions or diagnoses. Enabling a detailed, near-real time hospital admissions data feed of regional level data would provide vital data for priority research and health and care planning. This collaborative project builds on previous work (Phase 1) led by the Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) Regional Linked Health Data for Research Programme which aims to conduct ‘driver’ projects to explore data capability, data access and feasibility of enabling near real time hospital admissions linked data feeds at regional level. Phase 2 included 4 additional regions and implemented 2 driver use cases – this report summarises the driver use case led by the University of Sheffield which explored variation in acute hospital admissions across the regions. Use Case Insights: This driver use case identified that patients in the Emergency Care Dataset (ECDS) and Admitted Patient Care (APC) datasets were older in the Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) groups on average than the non-ACSC groups. Deprivation was a key factor observed equally in ACSC and non-ACSC groups, and there was a high proportion of patients attending ED with ACSC. High variation existed between hospitals in terms of attendance for ACSC. Further research is needed to establish clearer criteria for potentially avoidable admissions and same day emergency care-eligible patients. Data Capability and Access Insights – Significant variance in data capability and access resulted in delays with clear opportunities for further harmonisation to promote more effective collaboration across multi regional data infrastructure. The report outlines key recommendations to promote harmonised and standarised collaborative working across multi regional data infrastructure.