Case studies
Life as an analyst at the Commission is challenging and varied. In this section you can read first-hand accounts of a day in the life of analysts working in our three key teams.
- Analytical Support
- Screening and Surveillance
- Indicator and Measurement & Information Knowledge Management
Analytical Support
"My job involves looking at local information gathered by regional staff on the performance of NHS trusts and feeding this into a range of Healthcare Commission's systems of assessment.
"A typical day starts with reading emails: regional staff send intelligence that they have gathered on their local NHS trusts to our team email address. After this, I may look at code and analyse the textual data that has been sent in, which can range from a formal meeting with a trust, issues highlighted in forums of patients or a summary of how the public feels about NHS services, through to a local newspaper article.
"One of the most interesting aspects of the role is that you never know what the next item of intelligence will be focused on. For example, one day you may be looking at information relating to MRSA and the prevalence of healthcare acquired infection, and the next whether patients at a particular trust are happy with the food they receive in hospital. Because of this, you get a crash course into the myriad challenges facing the NHS.
"Other aspects of my role include writing reports, summarising the local information that we hold and analysing the amount and type of information that we receive. The information we analyse contributes to the Commission's annual health check and is also fed back to regional staff.
"On a personal level, my job provides me with the opportunity to improve my presentation skills and to meet and build working relationships with colleagues from around the country.
"My team's focus is on the collation, management and analysis of qualitative information. I will often be involved in an afternoon meeting about the development of the qualitative methods that we use and how we could improve our use of this data. This allows us to influence the methodologies used by the Healthcare Commission."
You can find out more about the Analytical Support team in Home teams.
Screening and Surveillance
"My job involves ensuring that robust models for screening different types of healthcare data are understood and made available to colleagues who need to use them. I also provide appropriate advice on how and when to use these methods.
"A typical day begins with reading emails and dealing with any urgent requests. I usually spend most of my time modifying and updating an analysis tool that was built internally, called ‘Compass'. This is the primary analysis tool used by my team and other teams within Informatics. My work for the day may involve testing a new method, installing a new method into the background code, advising colleagues on how to use a new model, or (all too often!) fixing bugs in new methods.
"A regular aspect of my job involves handling a number of potentially large NHS data sets, either collected by the Healthcare Commission or supplied by an external source. After quality checking the data, I ensure that they are analysed appropriately and can provide useful outputs.
"I enjoy the variety in my job and the mix of working on my own, in groups or presenting to various people. At the end of the week, it's off to the local football pitch to play in the Healthcare Commission's social team."
Find out more about the Screening and Surveillance team in Home teams.
Indicator and Measurement & Information Knowledge Management
"My job involves providing analytical support to the team responsible for delivering the targets aspect of the annual health check.
"A typical day begins with checking mine and the team's email, to see if there are any messages from trusts and members of the public. In providing a thorough response, I research policy areas and results from previous assessments.
"A regular aspect of my work includes analysing the results of the annual health check and looking for trends. This work assesses how the thresholds will be used to assess future results. This work is very interesting and allows me to see results of all the trusts in England.
"I often spend time researching policy areas for developing future indicators or attending meetings with internal and external stakeholders, to ensure that we are always sharing information and examples of good practice.
My team has two parts (delivery and development) which both work to a year-long project plan. Our team ethos is very warm and friendly and, on certain projects, we all work as one. My team contributes to the very important annual assessment of NHS trusts and I feel proud to be part of that process."
Find out more about the Indicators & Measurement team in Home teams.
