In the recent weeks, practices have been preparing their
final run up to QOF targets for 2015/2016. With such a long and comprehensive
document to advise practices on their QOF indicators, it is no wonder that practices
struggle to implement every area to its full potential.
We have been in touch with various experienced Practice
Managers to get some advice on Quick Tips for collecting more QOF points. These
have been written in this blog.
“For 2015/16 there are 559 points in QOF across two
domains for clinical and public health indicators. The national average
practice population figure for the 2015/16 QOF year is taken from the
Calculating Quality Reporting Service (CQRS) on 1 January 2015 and is 7,233. The
value of a QOF point for 2015/16 is £160.15.” Quoted from 2015/16 General Medical Services (GMS) contract Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF)Guidance for GMS contract 2015/16
An excerpt from the QOF guidance helping you access the
correct page for each indicator. Each Indicator link provides relevant
product areas from our site to save you time when looking for items. If you
need anything that you can’t find on our site, just let us know. We specialise
in sourcing to save you time and give you the best service we can. Use your
time to earn £100s of pounds on QOF, whilst allowing us to save you extra money
on products.
Clinical domain (435 points)
Atrial fibrillation (AF) page 31
Secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) page 35
Heart failure (HF) page 38
Hypertension (HYP) page 42
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) page 45
Stroke and transient ischaemic attack (STIA) page 49
Diabetes mellitus (DM) page 53
Asthma (AST) page 66
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) page 73
Dementia (DEM) page 79
Depression (DEP) page 84
Mental health (MH) page 87
Cancer (CAN) page 96
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) page 98
Epilepsy (EP) page 101
Learning disabilities (LD) page 102
Osteoporosis: secondary prevention of fragility fracture (OST) page 105
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) page 111
Palliative care (PC) page 114
Public health domain (124 points)
Cardiovascular disease – primary prevention (CVD-PP) page 118
Blood pressure (BP) page 123
Obesity (OB) page 124
Smoking (SMOK) page 126
Public health – additional services page 133
Cervical screening (CS) page 133
Contraception (CON) page 136
Quick Tips for collecting more points:
Text service – Quickly and cheaply collect points by
offering to all smokers advising of QUIT SMOKING help locally –(Worth
2 points -SMOK003. The contractor supports patients who smoke in
stopping smoking by a strategy which includes providing literature and offering
appropriate therapy)
Waiting Room Blood Pressure – Invite all
patients to take a blood test upon arrival using a waiting room blood pressure
monitor (include it in your check in process). (Worth 15 points with 50-90%
achievement thresholds - BP002. The percentage of patients aged 45 or over who
have a record of blood pressure in the preceding 5 years.)
Mini ‘MOT’ Day – Whilst arranging ‘Flu Day’ – Create
the opportunity for a mini ‘MOT’ day. Whilst providing Flu clinics or other
clinics where multiple patients are present, provide them the opportunity to
have their blood pressure taken as well. It lengthens the appointment by a
minute or so, but is better than inviting them back for a 10 minute appointment
with risk of DNA. Other basic checks like height, weight and BMI could also be
presented on this day.
Pregnancy Influenza Vaccines – In order to ensure you
can cover pregnant women easily, pull a list of patients off the midwife list
and text them all an invitation for flu jabs “You are eligible to receive a flu
vaccination, please book in….”
Patient Reporting – Take a look at target patient
reports. According to one Practice Manager, SystmOne, has a reporting function
where it can show the value of QOF points in GBP for e.g. the top 50 high risk
patients. Arranging appointments for a general check-up for these patients,
will not only ensure high risk patients are being checked up on, but increase
your chance of reaching a variety of QOF points in one appointment.
Patient Code Errors/QOF Data Validation– Whether
using external help from companies like QOF Masters and Insight Solutions
(please note these are companies we have heard of and not recommendations) or
checking in house, discovering where your practice has incorrectly coded
certain patients, e.g. dementia patients who have an incorrect code will help
to regain value you should have had to begin with based on dementia indicators.
This can total hundreds or thousands of pounds with only a few errors being
corrected. Although you need these codes corrected to get points, you also need
them corrected to ensure patients are invited for appropriate monitoring and
therefore accurate data ensures you give a better service of care.
Exception Reporting – Ensure that exception codes are
updated yearly and accurately. Practices can be negatively impacted on their
achievement thresholds if they do not correctly use Exception Reporting. E.g.
it may not be appropriate to review terminally ill patients in certain chronic
disease parameters, patients may not attend or refuse to attend even after 3
separate invitations for the same review parameter, or patients may be unable
to be prescribed certain medication due to conflicting treatments of allergy.
It is not an excuse to forget about patients though, because although patients
may be excepted from the denominator, they should still be the recipients of
best clinical care and practice. Each exception should be well supported in the
notes and reviewed individually. A few patients could make the difference of
10% and be the difference between getting any money or not.
The following are examples that are not acceptable as an
invitation:
1) a generic invitation on the right hand side of
the script to attend a clinic or an appointment e.g. influenza immunisation
2) a notice in the waiting room inviting
particular groups of patient to attend clinics or make appointments e.g.
influenza immunisation
When an appropriate exception code has been added to the
patient record, it applies only to the QOF year in which it was added. If the
timeframe defined to deliver the care described in the indicator wording spans
two QOF years, the exception would need to be added for each of the QOF years
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A & D Waiting Room Blood Pressure Monitor
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Microlife WatchBP Home A with AFIB Technology
COPD Screeners
Asthma Meters
Peak Flow Meters
Microlab 3500 MK8 Spirometer with SPC Software
Welch Allyn PC-Based SpiroPerfect Spirometer (With 3L Syringe)
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