Data Quality Improvement
Data Quality is the foundation of any public reporting initiative. Data quality improvement is a “low-hanging fruit” to quality measurement and report development activities. Health and payment reform has placed even greater focus on data quality, both for state data agencies.
The underlying data support a wide range of uses by diverse users. State health data initiatives are unique because they capture system-wide data, across different organizations and various platforms. Also, because the data support public and policy reports, the agency responsible for the data system is held to a high degree of accountability for overseeing the data management cycle, from collection, cleansing, analytics, and release.
The data quality process is an ongoing and continuous process. As the applications of the database increase, so do the opportunities to improve the data. Stakeholders of state databases are essential to any data quality improvement, so establishing close stakeholder relationships is important. Users provide important feedback about the utility of the data and submitters are technical experts that can explain the characteristics and limitations of the data.
NAHDO's Data Quality Forum meets quarterly to work on cross cutting data quality issues. Visit the Data Quality Forum page