News / Inpatient HRG error rates on the rise

The average healthcare resource group (HRG) error rates for inpatients in 2009/10 increased after a fall in 2008/09, according to the Audit Commission.

The commission examined the results from more than 100 inpatient audits and the early findings indicated that incorrect inpatient HRGs had increased from 7.3% in 2008/09 to 8.8% in 2009/10.

The percentage of incorrectly derived HRGs in 2007/08 was 8.3%.

In the latest issue of its Assure newsletter, the commission said procedure and diagnosis error rates were better than in previous years. Diagnosis errors had fallen from 15.1% in 2007/08 to 11.9% in 2008/09 and 10.4% in 2009/10. Incorrect procedure rates fell from 15.1% to 10.6% and 8.1%.

The range of errors varied from some trusts that derived around 1% of their HRGs incorrectly to others that had 28% incorrect.

The commission added that it had collected results of outpatient data assurance reviews from 90 trusts, which showed a wide range in the number of outpatient appointments with one or more errors.

While there were virtually no errors in some trusts, they were as high as 47% in others. The gross monetary value of the errors ranged from zero to £2,700.

While the trusts audited so far had adequate arrangements in place in general, they needed to do more to ensure the arrangements were implemented effectively, said the commission.

The audit body also said that it would report its findings from its audit of reference costs to the Department of Health soon.

The audit is part of the Department’s review of reference costs, which is designed to improve the accuracy and usefulness of the available data.