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Part of The HES processing cycle and data quality checks

Data quality reports and Technical Output Specification

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Current chapter – Data quality reports and Technical Output Specification


Data quality notes

When HES is published, additional data quality information and explanatory notes are also made available. For HES system users and those requesting extracts, Data Quality Notes are published highlighting any specific known issues with the data to be considered when analysing the data.


HES data quality note content

The HES Data Quality Notes are updated for each extract published and are available from 2007-08 data year onwards. A typical note will contain

  • issues with specified fields
  • issue with fields for a specific provider
  • coverage issues
  • processing errors including mapping issues, duplicates missed, auto clean error or errors at SUS ops stage or XML
  • anything else that is considered useful for users to be made aware of

Where possible each entry will highlight the impact on analysis of the area it relates to and give a timescale of when this issue will be resolved.

Each note records the issues that are found at the time of publication. If additional issues are found post-publication, the note will be updated to reflect this.


Data Quality Dashboards and DQMI

The Data Quality Maturity Index (DQMI) is a monthly publication intended to highlight the importance of data quality in the NHS. It provides data submitters with timely and transparent information about their data quality. The first publication focused on the quality of set of core data items identified as being important to commissioners and regulators.


SUS data quality dashboard reports

The CDS data quality dashboard reports are available to help monitor and  drive improvements in the quality and completeness of data submitted to SUS. This guidance provides instructions on how to register for access and information about the service. 


HES Technical Output Specification

The HES Technical Output Specification (TOS), provides a list of all fields available in each dataset in HES. It includes each field format, description, valid values and details of any further processing applied. 


Contact us

You can contact the secondary care team about a data quality query or to gives us feedback about this guidance by emailing [email protected]


Last edited: 17 February 2022 3:07 pm