In the present era, data is one of the most important factors for business survival of any industry, and healthcare is no exception. In fact, the drive to reduce cost and the desire to improve patient care makes the healthcare industry one of the most eager customers for clean and integrated organizational data. But this data needs to posses a number of characteristics if it is to be used for decision-making and strategic operation. The government of British Columbia defines the state of completeness, validity, consistency, timeliness and accuracy that makes data appropriate for a specific use as data quality
Organizations select from these dimensions based on their own needs and special circumstances. Examples include New Zealand Healthcare data quality framework (6 dimensions), Statistics Canada’s Quality Assurance Framework (6 dimensions), Ontario Data Quality Management Framework (4 dimensions) , and CIHI Data Quality Framework, which will be presented here in further detail. CIHI has been publishing a framework for data quality since 2000. the latest revision, 2006, has selected five of these dimensions to implement a data quality assessment tools (10). CIHI selects Accuracy, Timeliness, Comparability, Usability, and Relevance. They then divide these dimensions into characteristics, and define a set of criteria for each characteristic. Using a ranking system of met, unmet, and unkown or not applicable, the strengths and limitations of data is assessed, and areas of intervention identified. To help prioritize those intervention activities, some of the criteria follow another ranking system of minimal, moderate and significant. CIHI defines the roles and responsibilities of data quality framework as follows:
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