HIQA opens public consultation on data standards for health and social care services
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has opened a public consultation on it’s draft standards to improve the quality of health and social care information.
The standards are set out under three principles.
The first principle states that organisations must place an emphasis on protecting and promoting people’s rights relating to their information including their privacy and confidentiality, but also their autonomy, dignity, values, preferences and diversity.
The second principle holds than an organisation is accountable by having the necessary governance arrangements in place to manage information appropriately in line with relevant legislation.
Under the third principle an organisation is responsive by taking a strategic and systematic approach to information governance including privacy and confidentiality, data quality, data security, data accessibility, and to ensure that maximum benefit is achieved from its data and information.
HIQA’s director of health information and standards Rachel Flynn said: “An individual’s health information informs all aspects of their care. Given the interconnected nature of health and social care, information is collected across a range of services and organisations and often combined for many different reasons, such as to give a complete picture of an individual’s health or to plan and manage services for the population.
“A system-wide approach is therefore necessary to ensure that all organisations put in place arrangements to ensure data is of high quality and treated in a confidential manner. This is essential to achieve the Sláintecare vision of one universal health service for all, providing the right care, in the right place, at the right time. Good information management practices are also essential to providing assurances on the quality of the major national repositories of data that are used to monitor diseases, manage services, inform policy-making, conduct research, and plan for future health and social care needs.
“If organisations and services work towards meeting the draft national standards, it will ultimately contribute to the delivery of safe and reliable care for everyone. In practice, this means that a health or social care professional has a comprehensive and accurate record of an individual’s health and social care history to help inform urgent, current or future care. Good information management is also necessary to manage demand for care, as accurate and timely data is necessary to effectively plan and manage services.”
The consultation closes at on 19 December 2022.
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