In July 2004 the Department of Health published Standards for Better Health which includes 24 core standards that represent a level of service that all patients and service users of all ages should be able to expect from the NHS.  Following this in April 2005 the Healthcare Commission (renamed the Care Quality Commission) published Criteria for Assessing Core Standards.

The Information Governance Toolkit  (IGT) is one of the criteria for assessing core standards.

The Toolkit Requirement 505 states that in order to attain level 1 for clinical coding analysis, within Secondary Use Assurance, the clinical coding auditor must be on the NHS Classifications Service list of approved clinical coding auditors. Current approved clinical coding auditors are themselves audited on a regular basis to ensure they meet the set criteria to maintain their status.

What the register of clinical coding auditors provides

The register provides a list of individuals that have successfully completed the Clinical Coding Auditor Programme (CCAP) and so acquired the core skills required to apply the NHS Clinical Coding Audit Methodology which is issued only to registered auditors.

To comply an auditor must provide a full clinical coding audit report of a minimum of 200 Finished Consultant Episodes (FCE). These must be submitted in the first year following the successful completion of the course for our assessment against pre-set criteria.  

Following completion of the CCAP it is up to the auditor and their employing organisation to ensure that their newly acquired audit skills are put to use to:

• gain experience in this field,
• keep up-to-date with clinical coding standards and guidance and;
• undertake continued professional development.

Any organisations requiring clinical coding audit can refer to the Approved NHS-based Auditors List (N3 connection required, NHS staff only). Please note this list only contains names of those NHS-based Approved Clinical Coding Auditors who have given their permission for their details to be listed, and is therefore not exhaustive.

Commercial organisations/individuals offering registered auditing services

There are a number of independent consultants and commercial companies offering auditing services to the NHS whose contact details can be found using the Internet search engines. It remains the responsibility of the commissioning organisation to obtain necessary references, evidence of experience and expertise.

These services are not quality assured by us and we do not endorse any particular individual or company. However we do maintain the list of registered auditors as those that have succesfully attended our qualifiying CCAP.

If you wish to confirm if any commercial or independent auditor is registered with us as Approved then please contact our helpdesk.