To meet the current QOF requirements for HF008, patients diagnosed with heart failure on or after 1/4/23 should have this confirmed by an echocardiogram or by specialist assessment between 3 months before or 6 months after the diagnosis.
Ardens has created the following searches to support practices in identifying newly diagnosed heart failure patients eligible for an echo or specialist assessment, to ensure this is completed in time.
To locate the searches, access the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 5.21 Contracts - QOF - Time sensitive > Heart Failure HF008 search folder.
The above searches are based on the patients included on the QOF Heart Failure register eligible for these tests.
Search 1 is the parent search, identifying patients with a recent heart failure diagnosis eligible for an echo or referral to specialist assessment.
For search 2, this will include patients diagnosed with heart failure, with a correctly coded echo or referral to specialist assessment code within the correct time frame.
For search 3, this will identify patients diagnosed with heart failure with an outstanding echo or referral. This is further broken down (3a and 3b) by those that have less than 1 month or between 1-3 months remaining to complete the echo or specialist assessment within the correct time frame.
For search 3.c, this will identify patients who have had an appointment in the last week. These patients may have been referred for echo or specialist assessment, but a code has not been recorded. You may wish to review the patient records to check whether this has taken place but has just not been recorded correctly. If appropriate, add the correct code.
For search 3.d, this will display patients with an outstanding echo or referral, however there is evidence that one of these has taken place, but an incorrect QOF code has been used. You may wish to review the patients records and replace with the correct QOF code.
Searches 4 and 5 are for information only and will display patients with a not indicated, or an exception code is in place this fiscal year.
If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: