Guidance to help the consistent use of provider organisation and site codes

This topic has become more important considering the recent COVID-19 outbreak and the need to be clear about the physical location where patients are treated (to aid identification of COVID-19 hotspots, for example) and ensure that the NHS England commission of Independent Sector Healthcare Provider resource is identified correctly. It is apparent that there is some incorrect reporting practice in place whereby acute NHS provider organisations are submitting data to SUS on behalf of a nearby ISHP but the content of the data does not enable identification of the physical location of actual treatment and there are examples whereby the ISHP activity cannot be identified within the acute NHS provider activity. The use of ward codes (see NHS Data Dictionary definition provided in Annex A) is not an acceptable method to distinguish different physical hospitals sites and healthcare providers are encouraged to undertake corrective action so that provider organisation site codes are used to distinguish physical hospital sites.  (See Section 4.0 of this document which outlines how a new organisation code can be requested.)

With effect from 1 October 2020 NHS Digital have enacted the Information Standards Notice (ISN0090) and new organisation codes will be issued in the ANANA format. Organisation codes currently in existence will not be re-mapped to the new ANANA format and old (for example pre 1October 2020) and new ANANA organisation format codes will co-exist. The new organisation codes created will be generated in a random manner employing the alpha numeric alpha numeric alpha structure and therefore will not illustrate the hierarchy or relationship between trust and site. Prior to 1October 2020 and the introduction of ANANA format organisation codes, a logical relationship between hospital Trust and the healthcare sites used by that trust was demonstrated through the structure of the organisation site code whereby the first 3-characters of the 5-character site code a provider site code mirrored the 3-character provider organisation code.

All acute healthcare providers should note that with effect from 1October 2020, data interchanges will be rejected by SUS where the ORGANISATION CODE (CODE OF PROVIDER) is not a recognised code. For acute NHS providers where the organisation codes were constructed prior to 1 October 2020 the provider organisation code is required to be shown as the 3-character trust (‘R’) code. Read more about this in the SUS news from June 2020 news. This guidance is for adoption with immediate effect.

These tables summarise the different reporting scenarios and the correct use of organisation and site code fields where the organisation code was created prior to 1 October 2020 (and therefore not in the ANANA format).

The methodology described above in section 2.0 is equally applicable. The new organisation code will be in the ANANA format, will be 5 characters in length and will not illustrate a hierarchical relationship with previously created organisation codes. So, there will be scenarios whereby an NHS acute provider has a character ‘R’ Provider organisation code and a new site code for that trust will have a ANANA structured organisation code that does not inherit the leading 3 characters of the Provider organisation code.

If a healthcare provider requires a new organisation site code (like a parent provider organisation wishes to illustrate a legitimate relationship with another healthcare site) please check that a valid organisation code does not already exist. This can be achieved by inserting the postcode of the organisation into the ODS portal search facility which will return a list of all organisations and site codes located at that postcode. The list will return organisation names and codes that have been closed and therefore only ‘open’ organisations are appropriate for use in activity reporting.

If an open organisation code for the site is not found a new organisation code can be requested. The process of generating a new organisation is quick (for example sometimes a matter of hours or next day) and will result in updates to national reference material thereby making the information accessible to all stakeholders for their use. Please note that where a ward code has previously been used to distinguish physical hospital sites then a new organisation site code should be requested.

WARD

A group of Hospital Beds with associated treatment facilities managed as a single unit for the purposes of staffing and treatment responsibilities. All the rooms in a small hospital may be managed by one senior NURSE and as a single unit and thus they would comprise one WARD. A WARD may be available all the time or for only limited time periods during the day or week.

A critical care unit will comprise one WARD if the Hospital Beds and associated treatment facilities are managed as a single unit.

Maternity wards of the same 'type' on the same site should for national purposes be treated as one WARD, so that a PATIENT moving between them is not counted as a transfer between WARDS. For local purposes it may be useful to identify separately such transfers. Facilities specifically used for delivery in maternity wards should be included as WARDS, or annexed to WARDS.

WARD CODE

A unique identification of a WARD within a Health Care Provider