TABLE OF CONTENTS


Introduction

There are several QOF indicators that have a time limitation for achievement. If this window is missed there is nothing that can be done to gain the QOF points for those patients.


These indicators are as follows. 

  • Asthma (AST011) - Spirometry and one other objective test between 3 months before or 6 months after diagnosis (if diagnosis on or after 1 April 2023) OR within 6 months of registration (If newly registered with a diagnosis on or after 1 April 2023 but no record of objective tests being performed at the date of registration).
  • Diabetes (DM014) - Structured education referral within 9 months of diagnosis.
  • Heart Failure (HF008) - Echo or specialist assessment to confirm a diagnosis in the 6 months before diagnosis (if diagnosis on or after 1 April 2023) OR within 6 months of registration (If newly registered with a diagnosis on or after 1 April 2023 but no record of an echocardiogram or a specialist assessment at the date of registration). 


Ardens Clinical resources include a comprehensive suite of QOF Time Sensitive Searches/Reports in both EMIS web and SystmOne to support practices to improve data quality and ensure QOF points are achieved within the required timescales.


Please see the enclosed Support Articles to help support you with this:


EMIS Web Time Sensitive Searches

SystmOne Time Sensitive Reports


The Ardens Manager platform can be used further to monitor those patients.


How to Access the Reports

You can access the Time Sensitive reports via the Ardens Manager QOF Dashboard. 


Select the Contracts icon, followed by the QOF contract. 



Using Asthma (AST011) as an example select the Respiratory Tab.



Scrolling down will display the AST011 Time Sensitive information.



How to use the Reports

These searches show how many patients still have time left for a review, including those due soon and those with longer time frames to help you plan and prioritise. 


Using Ardens Manager, you can identify these patients in your clinical system, benchmark your data against your PCN practices, use the demographics tab to spot trends, and filter your patient list further to focus your efforts.


A separate report will clearly identify patients whose review windows have already expired. This gives you the opportunity to check whether the work was genuinely missed or if it was completed but not correctly coded. If needed, you can update the consultation or add the missing code—just be sure that any retrospective coding is dated within the valid time frame. 


If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact the Ardens Manager Support Team on: support-manager@ardens.org.uk