Risk Stratification

What is risk stratification?
There are two kinds of risk stratification:
1.  The first kind is a process for identifying some patients within a Practice who might benefit from extra assessment or support with self-care because of the nature of their health problems.  The process is a mixture of analysis of information by computer followed by review of the results by a clinical team at the Practice.

The analysis can, for example, help predict the risk of an unplanned hospital admission so that preventative measures can be taken as early as possible to try and avoid it.  In the end, it is the clinical team of the GP Practice that will decide how your care is best managed.

2.  The second kind is a process for identifying patterns of ill health and needs across our local population.  This will be done by pulling together all the information in an anonymised file (where your identity has been removed) to look at patterns and trends of illness across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland as a whole.  This will help our Public Health Department and those in the NHS who are responsible for planning and arranging health services across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (known as commissioners) better understand the current and possible future health needs of the local population.  This will help them make provision for the most appropriate health services for the people of this area.  This group of staff will not be able to identify you as an individual under any circumstances.

In both cases the NHS systems and will processes will protect your health information and patient confidentiality at all times.