NCEPOD: Trauma - Who Cares? - London Health Programmes

MethodQuality and confidentialityA number of predetermined, mandatory key fi elds on eachquestionnaire had been set to ensure that data analysiscould be performed effectively. If these key fi elds were notcompleted on receipt of the questionnaire by NCEPOD, theNCEPOD local reporter or clinician was contacted to see ifthe data could be obtained.Each case was given a unique NCEPOD number so thatcases could not easily be linked to a hospital.The data from all questionnaires received were electronicallyscanned into a preset database. Prior to any analysis takingplace, the data were cleaned to ensure that there were noduplicate records and that erroneous data had not beenentered during scanning. Any fi elds that contained spuriousdata that could not be validated were removed.Data analysisFollowing cleaning of the quantitative data, descriptivestatistics were produced.The qualitative data collected from the assessment form andfree text answers in the clinical questionnaires were codedaccording to content and context. The data were reviewedby NCEPOD clinical staff to identify the nature and frequencyof recurring themes.Case studies have been used throughout this report toillustrate particular themes.All data were analysed using Microsoft Access and Excel bythe staff at NCEPOD.The fi ndings of the report were reviewed by the expertgroup, advisors and the NCEPOD steering group prior topublication.20