Overview 

The Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) is a patient level, output based data set used in secondary care which aims to deliver nationally consistent and comparable person-based information for patients who are in contact with Mental Health Services.

NHS England commissioned PRSB to work jointly with them to develop consistent reference sets to provide clarity on which codes are to be used by community mental health teams. The agreed reference sets will now be endorsed by appropriate clinical bodies.

Scope

The scope of this project is the non-urgent community mental health care pathway for both children and young people, and adults and older adults. These pathways will cover start of therapeutic or social interventions, creation of a patient care plan and/or single-session interventions with children and young people, where appropriate.

The project scope is limited to data submitted to the MHSDS as part of routine, required submissions from providers of NHS-commissioned metal health care, including Voluntary Care Sector and independent service providers. The first release of the SNOMED reference sets is for the purposes of waiting times clock stops only.

Objectives

The objectives were to:

• Identify a baseline reference sets for assessments and interventions used in non-urgent community mental health pathways
• Consult with appropriate clinical bodies to validate the SNOMED CT reference sets and gain consensus that it is comprehensive
• Present reference sets to NHSD terminology service for publication in the UK release of SNOMED CT
• Produce guidance for the implementation and use of the reference sets in mental health systems

Benefits

The following benefits have been identified:

• Understanding patient waits and improving the quality of direct care for patients
• Reduced data burden on clinical teams and improved care by making data entry more consistent and preventing duplicate data entry in multiple systems
• Improved analysis of data, making clinical and management audits quicker, easier and more comprehensive
• Facilitated integrated care models by enabling data sharing and decision-making on care and patient safety. All relevant professionals involved in a person’s care access, use and amend a shared view of a patient’s healthcare
• The new Mental Health Currencies, replacing Clustering, will be built on routine data flows within national Mental Health datasets.