Changes to
NJR Connect for healthcare providers
System enhancements for NJR Connect – Data Services
We are always interested in your feedback as system users of NJR Connect – Data Services. Feedback so far has enabled us to further develop both the data entry and reporting systems and we plan to introduce regular enhancements across the year to constantly improve your user experience.
System enhancements – Live from 30 April 2026
As the latest enhancement to our reporting service, NJR Connect – Data Services new functionality, ‘Records Management’ is now available to Hospital Data Managers, Hospital Data Entry users, and Procurement and Finance users.
Records Management has been developed to make searching, retrieval, editing, and download of data much easier and to overcome many of the legacy restrictions associated with the former system.
You can find out more about ‘Records Management’ here
System enhancements – June 2025
- Never event warnings will be triggered where there is a size mismatch between the Femoral and/or Tibial components selected, but only where the compatibility information has been provided by the manufacturer.
- Introduction of a new knee size mismatch potential never event.
System enhancements – March 2025
“Consent = No” pop-up message
When entering data into the registry in England and Wales, consent can be recorded as ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘Not recorded’. In cases where a user selects ‘No’ for consent, a pop-up box will appear to confirm that the patient was asked for their consent and that this is the option recorded in the patient’s notes.
If the patient has actively declined consent, please click on Continue
If you don’t have a consent form, please click on Change. This will change the consent status to ‘Not recorded’.
System enhancements – September 2024
(Enhancements introduced on the 25 & 26 September)
Management Feedback
Unit data dynamic reports
Outcome summary report – outcome results now display the same control limits as the funnel plot reports, replacing the use of z scores:
Data Submission report – while retaining the use of z scores the layout of the thermometer plots has changed so that now ‘better than’ scores appear to the left of centre, and ‘worse than’ to the right.
ODEP implant usage – a new report showing the usage of ODEP-rated hip and knee implants in a rolling 12-month period up to the end of the previous complete month. This report is refreshed monthly.
Data Quality Audit
Addition of a new status field in the ‘Unmatched Records’ PAS section: ‘Awaiting component requests from suppliers’ (i.e. items which are in the edit stack owing to missing component information with the NJR).
Data Entry
Introduction of shoulder manufacturer mix and match potential never events. Never event warnings will be triggered if the humeral implants/humeral accessories and glenoid implants/glenoid accessories are manufactured by different companies.
System enhancements – July 2024
(Enhancements introduced July 2024)
Disaggregation of Consent – a change to the reporting of the NJR consent rate. There will be three rates moving forwards – Overall, Elective and Trauma. This change will be rolled out across feedback reporting e.g. in this release it has been applied to the Management Feedback Data Submissions report. Later this year it will be applied to Consultant Level and Surgeon Level reports and Annual Clinical Reports.
Management Feedback
The ‘Patient status’ report has been re-named to ‘Patient data and status’.
The following information has been added to the download report:
- NHS Number
- ODEP rating (for procedures from 1 April 2023 onwards)
- Age of patient at time of index procedure
- Grade of first assistant
Procedure download report – the following information has been added to the report:
- Component information
- ODEP ratings (for procedures from 1 April 2023 onwards)
Component database EPRD Alignment
A number of changes have been made to the component database (field names and field values) in order to align with the German registry’s component database.
Component matching
- The addition of Ankle, Elbow and Shoulder component matching.
- All outputs will include the stripped catalogue number (i.e. without special characters).
- Duplicate components – the same GTIN can be applied to components which are used in different joint types e.g. screws.
- Partially matched/unmatched components – a change to the allocation of components to these files. If a component is partially matched it will now be placed in both the partially matched and unmatched files for completeness.
Data Quality Audit
Inclusion of DAIR and Hemi procedures in the FY24/25 annual data quality audit.
(Further details will follow in the near future.)
| OPCS codes |
| W801, Z843 – Open debridement and irrigation of joint | Hip joint |
| W801, Z846 – Open debridement and irrigation of joint | Knee Joint |
| W801, Z856 – Open debridement and irrigation of joint | Ankle joint |
| W801, Z815 – Open debridement and irrigation of joint | Elbow Joint |
| W801, Z813 – Open debridement and irrigation of joint | Glenohumeral joint |
| W801, Z814 – Open debridement and irrigation of joint | Shoulder joint |
| W461 – Primary prosthetic replacement of head of femur using cement |
| W471 – Primary prosthetic replacement of head of femur not using cement |
| W481 – Primary prosthetic replacement of head of femur not elsewhere classified |
System enhancements – April 2024
(Enhancements introduced April 2024)
New User Role
A new user group has been created for Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) e.g. physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other allied professions. All users in this group have level 1 access (aggregated dynamic reports) in Management Feedback to the hospital in which they work. Access requests for these users will need to be approved by the Hospital Data Manager.
Bulk Upload Changes
Corrections have been made to Bulk Upload functionality to stop records presenting with errors when optional fields have not been completed.
Automated Data Quality Audit functionality
The Exported files of NJR Unmatched Records, Matched Records, and Partial Matched Records now include the Linked Record label.
Filters on the NHS Number field on Provider Unmatched, NJR Unmatched & Partial matched screens have been restricted to show the following options:
- Contains
- Starts with
- Ends with
- Is empty
Data Entry
On clicking on any date field in data entry, the calendar will automatically appear.
Previous changes
Changes to access levels within Management Feedback (MF) and Clinician Feedback (CF)
All users associated with a hospital/trust/independent group (except bulk upload users) have been given access to Management Feedback dynamic reporting.
There are two levels of access
- Level 1 – Unit data reports – aggregate level reports only
- Level 2 – Unit data reports – all reports + ACRs
| MF access level | Level 1 | Level 2 |
|---|---|---|
| ACR user | x | ACR only |
| Chief Executive Officer | x | x |
| Clinical Governance | x | x |
| Consultant in charge | x | |
| Data Quality Lead | x | |
| Data Quality uploader | x | |
| Hospital Data Entry | x | |
| Hospital Data Manager | x | x |
| Lead Surgeon | x | |
| Medical Director | x | x |
| NJR Clinical Liaison Lead | x | x |
| Procurement and Finance | x | Implant reports only |
| Surgeon Data Entry | x |
The table below provides a breakdown of the reports accessible in each category – Level 1 or Level 2
| MF access level | Menu option | Report |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unit data | Hospital Summary |
| 1 | Unit data | Data submissions |
| 1 | Unit data | Activity |
| 1 | Unit data | Unit level funnel plots |
| 2 | Unit data | Surgeon level funnel plots |
| 1 | Unit data | Reasons for revision |
| 2 | Unit data | Patient Status |
| 1 | Unit data | Unadjusted Revision rate |
| 2 | Unit data | CLR Download status |
| 2 | Unit data | Shoulder metrics |
| 2 | Unit data | Procedure data extract |
| 2 | Reports | Annual Clinical Reports – ACR |
| 2 | Reports | Annual Clinical Reports – Addendum report (19_20) reason for revision |
| 2 | Reports | Annual Clinical Reports – Section 8 Addendum report (18_19) |
Shoulder Metrics reporting
Dynamic report menu – My data/Unit data
A newly introduced set of activity-based outcome metrics and data quality metrics for primary and revision shoulder procedures can be found in Clinician Feedback and Management Feedback.
The report is available only to surgeons and units who carry out shoulder procedures.
The report is refreshed on a monthly basis up to the end of the previous financial quarter so the latest year will refresh to June/September/December/March e.g. in April/May/June the report will update to the end of March of the previous financial year.
Report tabs available
- Consent
- Time to submission
- Primary demographics
- Primary procedure numbers
- Primary procedure breakdown
- Completed OSS (Management Feedback only) – primary procedures only
- Revision procedure numbers
- Revision cause
Procedure data extract (MF – Dynamic report menu/Unit data)
This report allows the user to download all NJR data for the unit. This extract can be used to view and download both submitted and unsubmitted records. The downloadable version of this report contains additional procedure data not shown on the screen.
Password Expiry
The expiry period for surgeons has been increased from 90 to 180 days. Please note that following these time periods users have a grace period of 30 days in which they can reset the password themselves. After this, they need to contact the service desk to reset the password.
Users will always need to contact the service desk if they enter an incorrect password 5 times in succession.
Automated Data quality audit
The automated data quality audit tool has been enhanced to allow users to
- (a) search for records using the NHS number in addition to local patient ID
- (b) download records (all fields) in XLSX and PDF formats.
Data entry
A number of cosmetic changes have been made following the release of MDSv8.
The following process changes have been made:
Barcode scanning – workflow improvements have been made for implants that have 2 barcodes (primary and secondary). Once the primary is scanned the cursor will automatically move to the lot number field without interruption on the screen and the user can then scan the secondary barcode. The system will automatically decode and add the scanned implant.
Re-operation form – the UCS options screen will now only be displayed if the procedure type selected is ‘Fixation of periprosthetic fracture’.
Primary procedure (all joints) study id question – when creating the first primary procedure in an NJR record where patient consent = yes the user has to complete questions regarding participation in a study. In the first release of MDSv8 this question required the user to return to the patient details page to complete the information. These questions now appear as a pop-up:
and once completed and closed will populate the fields on the Patient Details page for the user.