Enhancing data quality – through our NJR audit processes

NJR Data Quality Audit programmes

NJR data creates the ability to drive forward change, influence best practice, undertake important research and ultimately maximise patient safety and outcomes. High-quality data are the foundation of any joint replacement registry and now with around four million records our valuable data is a fundamental driver to help inform improved quality of care for patients, so it is imperative that the data provides an accurate picture.

The NJR’s programme of work to improve the quality of our data has been a key focus in recent years, driven through the NJR’s Data Quality Strategy. Key to this strategy has been our national programme aimed at assessing data completeness and quality within the registry and we conduct our audit programme to retrospectively check the quality of data within all hospitals reporting to the registry, on an annual basis.

The NJR’s Data Quality Audit has been running as an annual activity that comprises a local hospital providing an extract of data from the local hospital administration system, since 2014. This data is compared (or matched) against the submitted NJR registry data, and any missing records or discrepancies are reported to the hospital within an audit tool, for these to then be corrected.

Moving to an automated process for audit back in 2019 enabled users to upload the PAS data file directly to the NJR via the system and to then view the results of the audit on screen. This streamlined the process greatly for hospital staff, giving them greater usability and control of locally submitted data. This also enabled the accessibility to submit and check data at any time during the year, therefore maintaining quality compliance figures throughout the year and also serves as an early alarm for any potential missing records, enabling timely action to address this.

The FY25/26 Data Quality Audit is now open for file uploads.

For the 2025/26 QDP Award, the criteria have been updated to encourage hospitals to upload their audit in a timely manner, allowing time for any work to be completed on the audit by the 30 September deadline.

To qualify for the award, hospitals need to upload a clean set of audit data by 31 August 2026. 

The deadline for completing the audit, to qualify for an NJR award is 30 September 2026. (See details below about the NJR Quality Data Provider – Three-tier Awards Scheme.)

You can find a flowchart outlining our audit processes here.

We encourage hospitals to achieve our high targets in these audits through our Quality Data Provider Scheme – you can find details of all our audits, achievement criteria and deadlines for data submissions here.

Any queries regarding data quality audits can be addressed to Maggie Tate, Data Quality Officer for the NJR at Maggie.Tate@necsws.com

We have published a paper on how we have developed the NJR data quality audit programme here: https://online.boneandjoint.org.uk/doi/full/10.1302/2633-1462.39.BJO-2022-0051.R1

Other NJR Audits

Elbow audit – In 2023, we conducted a dedicated audit of elbow data, to ensure our data was the best it could be. We managed to almost double the number of elbow procedures on the registry.
You can find more about this audit here.

Shoulder audit – In 2024, we conducted a similar audit of shoulder replacement surgery with the aim of finding missing or inaccurate shoulder procedure records to investigate and try to resolve, to also be added into the registry.
You can find more about this audit here.

The NJR Quality Data Provider Scheme

The ‘NJR Quality Data Provider’ (DQP) scheme has been devised to offer hospitals public recognition for achieving excellence in supporting patient safety standards through their compliance with the mandatory NJR data submission quality audit process.

To gain DQP status hospitals are required to meet targets for best practice, increase engagement and awareness of the importance of quality data collection and embed the ethos that thorough and accurate data ultimately enables the NJR to develop improved patient outcomes. By awarding the NJR Quality Data Provider certificates annually at the end of the audit process, the scheme rewards only those hospitals that have achieved our stringent targets.

You can find out more about the award achievement criteria here

If awarded, the emblem seen on the left-hand side of this page is also placed on their hospital dashboard page on the NJR’s Surgeon and Hospital Profile website, here. The website displays orthopaedic data, which is published on an annual basis, for hospitals where any joint replacement operations are carried out, in the geographical areas where the NJR is operational. We also provide the emblem for the hospital’s own website and support for promotion through both their own and NJR media channels.

Please get in touch with us if you have any queries about the NJR Data Quality Provider Award Scheme at communication@njr.org.uk