The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) has collaborated with IWantGreatCare/Top Doctors (IWGC/TD) to enable the free submission of data to PHIN through the IWGC patient feedback platform.
At its AGM in December 2023, CEO of PHIN Ian Gargan (pictured), said the body would be working with affiliate companies to provide greater support to providers to help them comply with a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) order requiring health organisations to provide data on performance and patient outcomes.
The issue of providing care quality and outcome data has been a particular focus for the competition regulator over the last two years.
A year ago, two private hospitals were publicly warned about not providing data on performance and patient outcomes and were threatened with regulatory enforcement if they failed to meet a six month deadline to do so.
PHIN said its latest collaboration specifically focuses on support for the collection and submission of patient satisfaction data.
It added the IWGC platform provides a simple and accessible way for hospitals to collect the mandated PHIN patient feedback questions, and it will submit that data directly to PHIN on their behalf.
Gargan said: “It is important for healthcare transparency that we are able to collect large volumes of high-quality data. We know patients value the experiences of those who have undergone procedures before them.
“Therefore, we are keen to do whatever we can to help providers submit their patient feedback data, so that we can help patients make more informed choices.
“Working with IWGC/TD on this initiative provided a great opportunity for us to create a new avenue for data submission and reduce the burden on hospitals.
“We will continue to explore ways to develop this relationship, and others, to ensure we provide a gold standard in healthcare data.”
Jon Twinn, MD of IWGC and Director of B2B for Top Doctors, added: “We are delighted to work with PHIN to extend the capabilities of the IWGC platform to the sector and to collect more data that ultimately will help patients find great care.”
At Health & Protection’s first Health Summit where Gargan urged insurers to do more to promote its data on healthcare quality from practitioners and hospitals to patients.