Number of cataract surgeries

What this data shows:

The number of operations is important because the bigger the sample the more accurate the reported rates will be (precision of point estimates)

How the data is gathered:

Centres and surgeons joining the audit towards the end of the data collection period would be expected to have reduced volumes of data. The date for the first submitted operation is used to clarify which centres submitted data for less than the full one-year period. Centres and surgeons with <50 operations have been excluded because estimates would be too unreliable considering the adverse outcome rate for the main surgical complication is 1 in 70. This also means that IG issues related to reporting on small numbers are not relevant to this audit.

When the data is shown:

For all EMR sources the data used for the audit comprise the actual (anonymised) hospital record for each of the patients. Inaccuracies may arise if no EMR record is made for an operation.

More information about the data source:

The data presented have been collected by NHS trusts and Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTC) providing NHS funded cataract surgery in England and submitted to the National Ophthalmology Database (NOD) Audit for analysis.

Data Source:

Trust electronic medical record (EMR) systems: e.g. Medisoft, OpenEyes, EPIC and in-house databases compliant with RCOphth national cataract dataset. For all sources, data used for the audit comprise actual (anonymised) hospital record for each patient.

Data Period:

01 September 2016 to 31 August 2017

Data Supplier:

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ National Ophthalmology Database (NOD) Audit

Further Information:

noa.project@rcophth.ac.uk www.nodaudit.org.uk