Ahead of the game

doi:10.1136/bmj.39619.615463.59

BMJ 2008;336:1465 (28 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39619.615463.59

Feature

Ahead of the game

Rebecca Coombes, freelance journalist, BMJ

rcoombes@bmjgroup.com

See Feature, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39618.627951.80

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Private hospital group Bupa, now owned by Spire Healthcare,has been collecting patient reported outcome (PROMS) data forthe past decade. In this sense, they are ahead of the NHS, whichhas recently agreed to collect data in four areas: hip replacement,knee replacement, inguinal hernia, and varicose veins.

The initial motivation was to make systems more robust in thewake of the serious malpractice of NHS consultant gynaecologistRodney Ledward, who also treated patients in the private sector.Andrew Vallance-Owen, Bupa group medical director, explains:"I went through [Ledward’s] details and there were nodeaths, no readmissions, no complaints—there was nothingto tell us about him. There were patients who clearly had seriouscomplications but we knew nothing about it. It made me determinedto collect patient reported outcomes." Bupa decided to use a"health status survey" to gain a generic look a patient’shealth status. "We used Short . . . [Full text of this article]