NUFFIELD Health Taunton Hospital has been named as a National Joint Registry (NJR) Quality Data Provider for the third year after completing a programme of local data audits.

The NJR monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations to improve clinical outcomes for the benefit of patients and to support orthopaedic clinicians and industry manufacturers.

The registry collects high quality orthopaedic data to provide evidence to support patient safety, standards in quality of care and overall cost-effectiveness in joint replacement surgery.

The NJR Quality Data Provider certificate scheme was introduced to offer hospitals a blueprint for reaching high quality standards of patient safety and to reward those meeting registry targets.

Successful hospitals must meet six targets during the audit period, including compliance with the NJR’s mandatory national audit aimed at assessing data completeness and quality within the registry.

The NJR Data Quality Audit investigates the accurate number of joint replacement procedures submitted to the registry compared to the number carried out and recorded in the local hospital Patient Administration System.

The audit ensures the NJR is collecting and reporting on the most complete, accurate data possible across all hospitals performing joint replacement operations, including Nuffield Health Taunton Hospital.

Hospital director Mark Enticknap said: “Improving patient safety is of the upmost importance and something all staff take very seriously.

"We fully support the NJR’s work in facilitating improvement in clinical outcomes and governance for the benefit of joint replacement patients and we’re delighted to be recognised as an NJR Quality Data Provider."