Guidance

AAA screening: KPI and standards data submission 2022 to 2023

Updated 19 August 2022

Applies to England

1. Key performance indicators

1.1 Timescales

Q1 (1 April to 30 June)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 September to 30 September

Q2 (1 July to 30 September)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 December to 31 December

Q3 (1 October to 31 December)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 March to 31 March

Q4 (1 January to 31 March)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 June to 30 June

1.2 KPI review and sign off

The NHS Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Programme is responsible for extracting the key performance indicators (KPI data) from SMaRT (‘screening management and referral tracking’, the AAA national IT system). KPI AA2 is reported cumulatively across the screening year whereas AA3 and AA4 are reported by individual quarters.

1. The AAA programme will email the KPI numerator, denominator and percentage to each provider coordinator or manager to review and sign off. We will copy it to the screening quality assurance service (SQAS) regional offices for information. If the screening provider does not raise any concerns regarding the data by the end of the submission window, the AAA programme will assume the data is accurate. Guidance for checking AA2 (standard 2a) can be found in the support section of SMaRT. For AA3 and AA4, the AAA programme will provide screening providers with a list of surveillance appointments due, to aid the validation. Men who are not conclusively tested within the relevant time frames should be reported using the AAA exception report. This will be emailed to providers every quarter.
2. Concerns regarding data quality should be emailed to the AAA programme at phe.adultscreeningdata@nhs.net.
3. Once any data quality issues are resolved the AAA programme will amend the data in the national submission as necessary.
4. The AAA programme will email the data to the national KPI screening data and information manager at the close of the submission window. Screening providers should share their KPI data with their commissioners and screening and immunisation team as soon as it has been signed off.

Only complete data is published. Data is not usually published if the numerator or denominator is less than 5 for an individual quarter. In such cases, the data will be aggregated and published annually.

2. Quarterly screening standards report

2.1 Timescales

Q1 (to 30 June)
Run date: 12 July 2022
Time for sense checking and return: 12 July to 2 August 2022

Q2 (to 30 September)
Run date: 11 October 2022
Time for sense checking and return: 12 October to 1 November 2022

Q3 (to 31 December)
Run date: 10 January 2023
Time for sense checking and return: 10 January to 31 January 2023

Q4 (to 31 March)
Run date: 11 April 2023
Time for sense checking and return: 11 April to 2 May 2023

2.2 Quarterly standards review and sign off

The AAA programme produces these reports for each screening provider on a quarterly basis. Most standards are reported cumulatively across the screening year. The surveillance standards are reported for individual quarters. Data is extracted from the screening standards data in SMaRT.

1. The AAA programme will upload the screening standards reports onto SMaRT for screening providers to review in the second week after the end of the reporting quarter. Please note that due to data sharing restrictions, screening providers will only be able to see their own and national level data. If the provider coordinator or manager does not raise any concerns within 3 weeks, the AAA programme will assume the data is accurate. Screening providers should check the data as soon as possible after it is sent as the data will change on a daily basis. This will minimise differences due to the day on which the queries are run. The AAA programme will make a copy of the initial reports available to SQAS regional offices.
2. Concerns regarding data quality should be emailed to the AAA programme at phe.adultscreeningdata@nhs.net. Concerns will be resolved between the screening provider, SQAS (regions), the AAA programme and software supplier as appropriate.
3. As SMaRT is a live system it is not possible to extract the data for the report again as there may have been significant changes to the underlying data in each service. However, updated figures will be available in subsequent reports.
4. The AAA programme will make the validated reports available to the SQAS regional offices.

The screening standards report should be used for programme board meetings and to inform discussions between the screening providers and SQAS (regions).

Note that the data in the quarterly screening standards reports will be provisional, and only contains information that can be extracted from SMaRT.

Screening providers are responsible for disseminating the report to commissioners and the screening and immunisation teams.

We encourage screening providers to share their report as soon as it is signed off.

3. Annual screening standards report

The AAA programme is responsible for extracting the screening standards data from SMaRT in the form of a report. The annual screening standards report is the finalised data for the screening year. The data is extracted 2 months after the end of the last quarter to allow for completed information on testing and referrals. Screening providers receive a quarter 4 report in April. They should use the time between this and the extraction of annual data in June to ensure their data for the year is accurate and complete.

1. The AAA programme will upload the screening standards reports onto SMaRT for screening providers to review and validate where possible (using national guidance) on 13 June. Screening providers have 3 weeks to respond. If no concerns are raised within 3 weeks, the AAA programme will assume the data is accurate. A copy of the reports will be made available to SQAS regional offices.
2. Concerns regarding data quality should be emailed to phe.adultscreeningdata@nhs.net. Any concerns will be resolved between supplier, screening provider, SQAS (regions) and the AAA programme as appropriate.
3. Once data quality issues are resolved the data will be extracted from SMaRT again and the report updated so that changes are reflected.

The AAA programme will email finalised reports to the provider coordinator or manager and relevant SQAS regional office. We encourage screening providers to share their report with commissioners as soon as it is signed off. The annual pathway standards reports can be used to support the quality assurance visits and programme board meetings.

4. Waiting times for treatment tracker

4.1 Timescales

Q1 (to 30 June)
Deadline for updating SMaRT: 2 September 2022
Run date: 6 September 2022
Time for sense checking and return: 6 to 13 September 2022

Q2 (to 30 September)
Deadline for updating SMaRT: 2 December 2022
Run date: 6 December 2022
Time for sense checking and return: 6 to 13 December 2022

Q3 (to 31 December)
Deadline for updating SMaRT: 3 March 2023
Run date: 7 March 2023
Time for sense checking and return: 7 to 14 March 2023

Q4 (to 31 March)
Deadline for updating SMaRT: 2 June 2023
Run date: 6 June 2023
Time for sense checking and return: 6 to 13 June 2023

The trackers are run on the first Tuesday 3 months after the end of the quarter. This ensures that screening providers have 3 months to complete information on referrals made each quarter. The reports are run on Tuesdays following a weekly update of the database. Screening providers need to enter data by close of play on the Friday preceding the running of the reports to ensure that the snapshot of the database includes the most up to date data. The data reported is cumulative across the screening year.

1. Screening providers should ensure that records for men referred to surgery are kept as up to date as possible. Delays for attendance at specialist assessments and for surgery should be recorded when the information becomes available to the service. Guidance on the completing the relevant sections of SMaRT is available in the ‘AAA SMaRT user release notes v9.1’ in the support section of SMaRT.
2. The AAA programme will email the provider coordinator or manager on the date that the tracker reports are available in the report section of SMaRT.
3. The provider coordinator or manager will have one week to review the data in the report against local information. If any discrepancies are identified they should amend the record in SMaRT accordingly. The change in SMaRT will be captured for subsequent reports. The provider coordinator or manager should also amend an Excel version of the tracker report and send this to their regional SQAS office and the AAA programme (see email addresses below). If there are no amendments needed, the original version of the file should be sent to relevant SQAS regional office and the AAA programme stating that no changes have been made. The latest date for sending reports is on the last day of the service validation period.
4. Upon receipt of the tracker report SQAS (regions) and the AAA programme will review the figures and speak with screening providers if there are queries regarding the information.

5. Contact details

Email addresses for regional SQAS offices:

phe.northqa@nhs.net

phe.midsandeastqa@nhs.net

phe.southqa@nhs.net

phe.londonqa@nhs.net

Send data submissions to the AAA programme at:

phe.adultscreeningdata@nhs.net