Instructions for the Heads’n’Tails matching process

Firstly, apologies that this is not straightforward. However, it is crucial to the study that we match emergency critical care admission from the ward to the case report form that you completed for (SPOT)light. Stepwise instructions follow:

(1) Open the excel sheet which will be named something like 00S_111027_tails.xls.

This name simply breaks down to YourSiteCode_DateOfTheReport_tails.xls.

(2) Find the “Problem” column (usually column H) on the sheet.

If a match has been made, or you have told us already that the patient is not eligible or the notes are missing then cells in this column this will be empty. Ignore all rows where the cell is empty.

(3) For each problem row, ask the person responsible for entering ICNARC Case Mix Programme data locally to provide you with the hospital number for that patient.

They will need the CMP admission number provided in column F in order to look up the hospital number from your local records.

(4) Taking each hospital number provided, please check to see if a record for that patient exists on the (SPOT)light web portal.

The easiest thing to do is to enter the hospital number in the search box at the top of your patient list.

(5) If the (SPOT)light record already exists then the match has failed because there is a disagreement between the (SPOT)light data and the Case Mix Programme data.

Matching depends on agreement of case mix programme number, date of birth, sex, postcode, NHS number, and date and time of admission. The match is accepted if one if these items is missing, but not if they disagree so a simple typo will block a match.
Please correct any discrepancies. Report the correction, and we will re-run the match against the new data.

(6) If there is no (SPOT)light record then we are asking you to attempt to create one by ‘pulling’ the medical notes. Then if the date and time of the visit …

… can be established from the notes then please create a (SPOT)light record, and enter as much detail about the status of the patient as can be extracted from the medical record.
… cannot be established then please report that the data are ‘missing and unobtainable’.

(7) Finally, complete the ‘New Response Code’ column (column Q), and if you wish provide any further detail in the adjacent ‘New Response Notes’ column. The valid responses are listed below. You only need to enter the code (not the full text).

• 1 Patient not eligible
• 1a – readmission for the same illness (i.e. failed discharge)
• 1b – no bedside assessment by critical care team prior to admission
• 1c – patient admitted from A&E
• 1d – elective admission
• 2 Patient data for (SPOT)light missing and unobtainable
• 3 Patient data for CMP missing and unobtainable
• 4 Please re-match: Patient data updated for (SPOT)light
• 5 Match failed because of error in CMP data: see note
• 6 Match failed because of errors in CMP and (SPOT)light data
• 7 Match/visit/illness episode confirmed with no changes
• 8 Other: see note
• 9a Matched to correct patient but Incorrect visit time
• 9b Matched to incorrect patient
• 10 Alternative match proposed

(8) The notes field is optional except where you have selected …

• 8 A note or explanation is required
• 9a Incorrect visit time: Please enter the correct visit date in the DD/MM/20YY format. Do not enter the visit time. Do not enter anything else in the notes field. We will use the date to re-match the patient.
• 9b Incorrect patient: Please enter the hospital number for the patient who should be matched.Do not enter anything else in the notes field. We will import the number to rematch the patient.
• 10 Please enter the hospital number for the proposed match. Do not enter anything else in the notes field. We will import the number to rematch the patient.

(9) Return the completed ‘to-do’ sheet to us without changing the file name. We will import your work, re-run the match and send you the results. We should now be able to return this to you within 2 working days.