Summary
Objectives: The paper describes how an objective score (CCscore) of the ‘completeness’ and ‘currency’
of codified clinical information relevant to the management of diabetes mellitus may
be derived for individual practices.
Methods: A questionnaire was developed and administered to 35 practices and statistical methods
were used to test for correlation between the prevalence for diabetes mellitus and
the relevant CCscores
Results: No significant correlation could be found. Conclusions: The ‘quality’ of computer-stored information varies widely across English General
practices for reasons that are incompletely understood. We demonstrated how CCscores
may be calibrated for different ‘views’ of ‘relevance’, ‘completeness’, and ‘currency’
and yet be consistent across practices for a given ‘view’. The potential value of
this score and how it may contribute to our understanding of variation in ‘information
quality’ are discussed.
Keywords
Information - standards - computerized medical records - completeness and currency
of information - family practice - family practice
