Ardens has created searches to support practices in identifying patients living in deprived areas. 

EMIS allows for searching and reporting on 2 measures - Townsend Score and Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA). Both of these are very local, so cannot be easily written into a search centrally, but we have provided the tools which you can edit locally.

LSOA

This is the more commonly used measure and data can often be provided to you by your ICB. There is more information on LSOA here. We have created a search and a report which can be found in the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 1.12 LTC Reviews - Risk Strat > Lower Layer Super Output Area report: 

How to use

The folder contains a search and a report. The report ('LSOA report - shows all patients with LSOA area') can be run as-is. it will produce a list of the entire practice population, with a column showing their LSOA number:

This can be exported to excel and filtered to find patients in different areas.

The other option in this suite is to edit the search to look for LSOA area numbers which have been provided to you.

Editing the search

To do this, select the search and right click to 'Edit'

You will see 3 rules like this:

Each of these can be edited, and you can add additional rules to allow for as many numbers as appropriate (NOTE - there will likely be a lot of numbers and each needs to be entered in a separate rule).

To edit a rule, double-click the rule, then double click 'the Lower Layer (2011) is *' as below:

You can now remove the * and replace it with the number. Replicate this for each rule and each number. To create new rules, you can just 'copy' each one and 'paste it.

When run, this will produce a list of patients in each of the areas specified.

Townsend Score

Townsend deprivation scores are used as a material measure of deprivation in an area. More information can be found here. We have provided some resources to assist with identifying patients in an area of deprivation, using the tools within EMIS.

To locate the searches, navigate to the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 1.12 LTC Reviews - Risk Strat > Deprivation searches - Townsend score folder.

The searches and reports in this folder are based on the Townsend score.

Step 1 - Identifying the Percentage of Deprived Patients

Select the 'Townsend score report (shows Townsend score for all patients)' and click on the Run option on the EMIS ribbon (alternatively, right click on the search and click on Run). This will return all patients recorded with a Townsend score.

The next step is to further identify the specific patients (depending on percentage) and we will do this by exporting the results to a CSV file. Once the report called  'Townsend score report (shows Townsend score for all patients)' has been run, ensure it is highlighted and then click on the View Results option on the EMIS ribbon. 

The results will display in EMIS. Select the Export button on the EMIS ribbon, followed by the CSV option and choose to 'Exclude report header'.  

Choose a suitable location to Save the report on your computer. 

Once exported, open the saved file using Microsoft Excel or other suitable spreadsheet application.

Decide on the percentage of patients you require; in this example we will use 20% of the population (e.g. population of 15,000 patients, roughly 3000 patients). 

Once you are aware of the number of patients, scroll down the spreadsheet until you reach this point. 

Please note the above screenshot contains test data only

Make note of the Townsend Score, in this case it is -3.84.

Step 2 - Editing the Search to Include Specific Townsend Score Patients

Access EMIS and return to the Deprivation searches folder. This time select the 'Townsend score below (number to be completed)' search. Once selected, click on the Edit option on the EMIS ribbon (alternatively, right click on the search and click on Edit). The search editor will open.

Double click on Rule 1 to edit the rule. Once in the Feature Builder screen, double click on Townsend Score. Change this to the score have you noted in step 1.

Click OK and Save and Run to view the results. 

To identify the QOF conditions which the most deprived patients have, View Results of the 'Most deprived patients with QOF conditions' report.

Export the report to a CSV file to easily view the conditions for each patient. 

If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: [email protected]