72 hour follow ups for discharges from adult acute inpatient beds quick guide to submitting data

This guidance has been developed to support the improvement of the quality and completeness of data submitted to the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS) used in the analysis of 72 hour follow ups for discharges from adult acute inpatient beds.

Background

Timely follow-up after discharge has been highlighted as a priority in supporting people’s recovery by patient groups, NICE and the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH). A 72-hour follow-up standard has therefore been included in Schedule 4A of the NHS Standard Contract since 1 April 2020, which states that 'all people discharged from ICB-commissioned inpatient mental health services should be followed up within 72 hours. This applies to everyone who is discharged from an ICB-commissioned adult mental health inpatient bed to their place of residence, care home, residential accommodation, or to non-psychiatric care. All avenues need to be exploited to ensure patients are followed up within 72 hours of discharge.'

The national ambition is for all mental health trusts to ensure 80% of patients discharged from adult acute mental health inpatient settings are followed up within 72 hours and is intended to bring focus not just to the timeliness of follow-up, but also to the quality of pre and post-discharge care and safety planning and support.

NHS England publishes 3 monthly measures for 72 hour follow ups in the MHSDS monthly publications:

MHS78: Discharges from adult acute beds eligible for 72 hour follow up in the reporting period
MHS79: Discharges from adult acute beds followed up within 72 hours in the reporting period
MHS80: Proportion of discharges from adult acute beds eligible for 72 hour follow up - followed up in the reporting period

Data needed for recording an eligible discharge

MHS001MPI

Data item	Description	Notes specific to 72 hour follow up
NHSNumber	A number used to identify a patient uniquely within the NHS in England and Wales	For linkage to contacts after discharge

MHS105OnwardReferral

Data item	Description	Notes specific to 72 hour follow up
OrgIDReceiving	Organisation identifier (receiving organisation) is the organisation identifier of the organisation that is receiving the patient from another health care provider	This field is used to assign the responsible provider if the patient has an onward referral before being discharged

MHS501HospProvSpell

Data item	Description	Notes specific to 72 hour follow up
StartDateHospProvSpell	The start date of a Hospital Provider Spell
DischDateHospProvSpell	The discharge date from a Hospital Provider Spell	To identify the patient has been discharged in the reporting period
MethOfDischMHHospProvSpell	The method of discharge from a Hospital Provider Spell	Exclude where the discharge method was 4 - Patient died
DestOfDischHospProvSpell	The destination of a PATIENT on completion of a Hospital Provider Spell, or a note that the PATIENT died	Include where the destination is null or 19 – Usual place of residence unless listed below, for example, a private dwelling whether owner occupied or owned by Local Authority, housing association or other landlord. This includes wardened accommodation but not residential accommodation where health care is provided. It also includes PATIENTS with no fixed abode 29 – Temporary place of residence when usually resident elsewhere (includes hotel, residential Educational Establishment) 51 - NHS other Hospital Provider - WARD for general PATIENTS or the younger physically disabled 52 - NHS other Hospital Provider - WARD for maternity PATIENTS or Neonates 55 - Care Home With Nursing 56 - Care Home Without Nursing 66 - Local Authority foster care 88 – Hospice 98 - Not applicable 99 - Not known

MHS502WardStay

Data item	Description	Notes specific to 72 hour follow up
MHAdmittedPatientClass	The classification type of the admitted patient during a ward stay	To identify the bed type as adult acute. Include where 200 - Acute Adult Mental Health Care 201 - Acute Older Adult Mental Health Care (Organic and Functional) 202 - Adult Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (Acute Mental Health Care) 205 - Acute Mental Health Unit for Adults with a Learning Disability and/or Autism 212 - Adult Mental Health Rehabilitation (Mainstream Service) 213 - Adult Mental Health Rehabilitation for Adults with a Learning Disability and/or Autism (Specialist Service)

Data needed for recording follow up contacts

Follow up contacts should be submitted by the ‘responsible provider’. Where an onward referral has been recorded in the MHS105OnwardReferral table before the patient was discharged, then the ‘responsible provider’ is the provider entered in the OrgIDReceiving field of the MHS105OnwardReferral table by the discharging provider.

If no onward referral is recorded before the patient is discharged, then the ‘responsible provider’ is the provider who discharged the patient.

Please note that both care contacts and indirect activity count as follow up contacts. A submission of an in-scope contact or indirect activity will class as a follow up.

MHS001MPI

Data item	Description	Notes specific to 72 hour follow up
NHSNumber	A number used to identify a patient uniquely within the NHS in England and Wales	For linkage to contacts after discharge

MHS201CareContact

Data item	Description	Notes specific to 72 hour follow up
CareContDate	The date on which a Care Contact took place, or, if cancelled, was scheduled to take place	To identify whether a patient received a contact within 72 hours
AttendStatus	This indicates whether or not an APPOINTMENT for a CARE CONTACT took place. If the APPOINTMENT did not take place it also indicates whether or not advanced warning was given	Include where 5 - Attended on time or, if late, before the relevant CARE PROFESSIONAL was ready to see the PATIENT 6 - Arrived late, after the relevant CARE PROFESSIONAL was ready to see the PATIENT, but was seen
ConsMechanismMH	The communication mechanism used to relay information between the CARE PROFESSIONAL and the PERSON who is the subject of the consultation, during a CARE CONTACT	Include where 01 - Face to face 02 - Telephone 04 - Talk type for a person unable to speak 11 - Video consultation

MHS204IndirectActivity

Data item	Description	Notes specific to 72 hour follow up
IndirectActDate	The date that the indirect activity took place	To identify whether a patient received a contact within 72 hours

Mandatory tables needed for each MHSDS submission

The following 4 tables need to be submitted in each submission with their respective mandatory and required fields. More information can be found in the MHSDS user guidance and Technical Output Specification.

Table	Description
MHS000Header	Uniquely identifies each MHSDS submission made by the provider
MHS001MPI	Uniquely identifies every patient and records personal details of each patient
MHS002GP	Records details of the GP of every patient*
MHS101Referral	Records details of every referral**

* Whilst this is not specific to 72 hour follow ups, each patient must have a GP code recorded for their records to be accepted into the dataset. If you do not know the patient's GP code then the default 'V81997 - No Registered GP Practice', 'V81998 - GP Practice Code not applicable' or 'V81999 - GP Practice Code not known' codes can be used. Please note that by using a default code, this may result in an ICB not been assigned to the patient.

** For the purposes of MHSDS, a referral record must be in place for the Hospital Provider Spell record to link to. We appreciate that not all services associate spells with referrals, especially where admissions are non-elective, and providers may populate a dummy referral if required.

Github

Access the code used to create the 72 hour follow-up measures.

Last edited: 7 April 2025 11:07 am