Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are clinical assessments of quality of life that are tailored to patients' individual condition and stage of treatment. They provide new and important information about the effectiveness of surgery and long-term recovery.
Capturing and tracking PROMs before and after treatment allows:
- Patients to understand the benefits or otherwise of the treatment received.
- Clinicians to monitor progress to inform ongoing patient care.
Circle Health Group use PROMs data to help monitor the overall quality of care that they are providing to ensure only the highest standards of care are being delivered to all patients.
“Effective data capture is vital to ensuring the success of a service or treatment offered at a hospital. Patient reported outcomes are instrumental to helping clinical teams evaluate and inform decision-making to help deliver the highest standards of care to our patients.”
Peter James
Medical Director - Circle Health Group
Additionally, as well as being useful within Circle Health Group we are required to submit anonymised (de-identified) PROMs data on some procedures to the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) and NHS England (NHSE); depending on whether the procedure is privately or NHS funded. Both bodies publish PROMs data, comparing health organisations on outcomes and quality of care.
Procedures for which we submit data to PHIN are:
- Hip replacement
- Knee replacement
- Shoulder replacement
- Carpal tunnel (wrist) surgery
- Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP)
- Cataract surgery
- Nasal septoplasty
- Augmentation mammoplasty (breast enhancement)
- Abdominoplasty (tummy tuck)
- Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery)
- Liposuction
- Rhinoplasty (nose reshaping)
Procedures for which we submit data to NHSE are:
- Hip replacement
- Knee replacement
- Cataract surgery
Circle Health Group is partnering with My Clinical Outcomes (MCO) to manage the PROMs programme.
MCO is a web-based platform for collecting and analysing Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in routine clinical practice. The platform was originally developed by UK doctors in 2011 and has been in clinical use ever since, with over 150,000 patients registered having used the platform with over 1,000 clinicians at over 200 UK NHS and private hospitals.
MCO has worked in partnership with Circle Health Group since May 2023 to introduce their PROMs platform at 48 of Circle's hospitals. The partnership comes following Circle's continuous drive to improve clinical outcomes and data capture.
The number of conditions and treatments for which PROMs data is being collected is expected to increase over time and you will be notified and given more information if your clinical team is taking part.
MCO operates to the highest standards of information security. As well as being fully General Data Protection Regulation is a Regulation (GDPR) compliant, MCO maintains ISO27001 accreditation for information security management with systems and processes audited annually by the British Standards Institute. MCO has Cyber Essential Plus certification and the platform is penetration-tested at least annually by CREST-accredited specialists.
The platform is web-based so can be accessed on all modern devices and browsers, including smartphones and tablets.
Effective data capture is vital to ensuring the success of a service or treatment pathway offered at a hospital. Increasingly, platforms like the one offered by My Clinical Outcomes, are becoming instrumental to helping clinical teams evaluate and inform decision making.
From identifying unwarranted variation in surgical results to automatic data submissions and finally registering group-wide results with registries and regulators, effective management of data and understanding trends in patients is fast becoming key to ensuring the safe operation of a hospital and network.
Moreover, the platform will support Circle with managing and tracking consultant performance. Providing teams at hospital and national level, with valuable insight into the performance of consultants in every specialty offered across the UK.
Eligible patients will be sent an email from [email protected] to access the MCO platform. This will usually happen once your booking has been made but before treatment starts, however it may be at any stage of diagnosis, treatment or follow-up.
The first time patients access the MCO platform, they must verify their identity for information security reasons and can then activate their account. This involves clicking on a button within the email sent by MCO, confirming some details and setting a password. This process will only need to be completed once. Thereafter the tailored PROMs assessment is available to complete, with results available through a personal dashboard that can then be accessed at any time.
As well as showing the latest results, and any previous results and progress, the patient dashboard shows when the next assessment prompt will be sent. Patients will receive an email and/or text message reminder when their next assessment is due. The aim of the system is to capture data regularly and build up a picture over time, rather than capturing every change on a daily or weekly basis. However, it is possible to take further assessments in between the regular automated requests if helpful.
Results are immediately available to Circle Health Group teams, although teams vary in how exactly the information is used. While some use the information to plan ongoing appointments, others will use the information in the context of other clinical results and information in the consultation itself.
PROMs results will not be used in isolation to plan your care. The information will not replace your usual care and taking part is not mandatory for patients. Please contact your doctor directly if you have any concerns regarding your health.
How can I access my MCO account?
The platform can be accessed at https://circle.myclinicaloutcomes.com. Please note, the platform can only be accessed by patients who have received an invite email and activated their account.
What if I have not received an email from MCO?
Please note that Circle Health Group is not collecting PROMs for all conditions and treatments.
If you are expecting an email from MCO but cannot find this, please also check your spam email folders. If you are still unable to find the email, please visit https://circle.myclinicaloutcomes.com, enter your email and follow the instructions.
What if I have technical queries about the platform?
The MCO helpdesk team can be contacted through the “Contact us” tab or link on the platform. Alternatively email [email protected].
Which conditions / treatments / procedures are eligible for PROMs?
Circle Health Group will be collecting PROMs for all PHIN procedures listed above. Please note, you will only receive an invite if you are having an eligible procedure.
How often will I be prompted to complete a PROMs assessment?
The automated schedule varies and has been tailored to each condition to be as clinically useful as possible while not over-burdening patients to provider data that is unlikely to be useful.
In some cases, the frequency of prompts also changes according to the stage of treatment but it is not usually more frequent than once a month.
How long after my treatment will I be prompted to complete a PROMs assessment?
In most cases, prompts will continue to be sent periodically beyond the completion of initial treatment and follow-up as tracking long-term progress can be useful to inform any future need for clinical review.
Automated prompts can be switched off in the settings page, which is accessible from the dashboard.
What if I don't want to take part in the Circle Health Group PROMs programme?
Circle Health Group have worked in partnership with MCO to tailor the system to be as useful and usable as possible, however taking part is not mandatory and your care will not be affected if you choose not to take part.
More information about how PHIN use PROMs is available here:
https://www.phin.org.uk/help/health-improvement-proms
https://www.phin.org.uk/help/health-improvement-proms
More information about the company that run the MCO platform is available here:
https://www.myclinicaloutcomes.com
