It has been claimed that referral management centres are not an effective way to provide savings and that Trusts would be able to better manage budgets through having more information to hand about referrals, according to a report by the King’s Fund featured on E Health Insider Primary Care.
It was even claimed that quite the opposite of being a beneficial resource, referral management centres could actually increase costs to the NHS, with referrals being misdirected or delayed. Guaranteeing a constant flow of GP referrals across services is vital to Trusts and so having the necessary information to hand on where GP practices are sending patients is of key importance.
Ardentia’s Activity Flow Analytics allows hospitals to not only access information on precisely where their own referrals are coming from – using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology to display these on an easily accessible map, but it also allows them to see where those referrals they miss out on are being sent instead.
This information can be broken down into treatment type, age, gender and location, so Trusts are able to use their resources to the best of their ability to target the areas that offer them the most potential. For example, Activity Flow Analytics may demonstrate that a particular geographic area is sending the vast majority of patients elsewhere or perhaps pathology cases are not as high as other specialties, whatever the data shows, having this level of detail readily accessible allows Trusts to drill down into the findings to look at how they can best target GP practices to increase their referral rates.
Tagged: Activity Flow Analytics, Ardentia, GP referral, Trusts
The NHS is looking at debts of £65bn for the 103 hospitals that have been built under the private finance initiative (PFI), with some NHS Trusts looking at repayments that account for more than 10% of their turnover, according to recent findings by the BBC.
These figures have economists concerned that trusts will not be able to meet efficiency saving targets, with any savings made having to go towards the repayments. Perhaps of more concern is the worry raised by doctors that overall patient experience may be jeopardised, as less money will be available for treatment and patient care.
There are over 100 new hospitals due to the PFI scheme, but with the interest on the loans rising each year, the cost of the buildings rises from around £11bn to over £65bn by adding in the interest rates across the 30 year repayment period.
Such colossal debts leave NHS Trusts in desperate need to make savings wherever possible. However, we need to remember the focus of “quality care” as outlined by the Darzi review and not put patient experience at risk.
From pathology to mental health, there needs to be accurate reporting on all activity to make sure that each hospital is able to account for all costs and to demonstrate what has been achieved. This is where business intelligence is key. Keeping precisely detailed logs of all activity and linking finance managers with clinicians to see where and how best money should be spent, Trusts are able to offer a far better level of treatment for patients, while also working as economically as possible.
Tagged: business intelliigence, Darzi, efficiency savings, mental health, NHS Trusts, pathology, patient care, patient experience
More than a quarter of Foundation Trusts are predicting that they will miss the 62-day cancer waiting time target due to budget cuts, which will result in a drop in income by between 0.8% and 1.1%, reports the Daily Telegraph. Based on reports submitted to Monitor, 34 of the 129 Foundation Trusts believe they will not achieve the targets, forcing hospitals to look at taking on other services, such as home visits and rehabilitation in order to boost income.
Andrew Lansley has scrapped several of Labour’s waiting targets since taking the position as Health Secretary, but for those that remain, the financial rewards for meeting them has become an important part of Trusts’ income. With spending cuts making it difficult for targets to be achieved, Trusts will be forced to consider other ways they can increase income.
It has already been stated that some hospitals are looking at providing treatment that has previously been offered elsewhere, but as opposed to bringing in completely new services, Trusts need to be looking at what opportunities they are missing out on for existing services.
Ardentia’s Activity Flow Analytics allows Trusts to see exactly where their referrals are coming from and, more importantly, where else their referrals are being sent if it is not to them. This information is vital if Trusts are to ensure that they attain the required levels of income, especially in times when budget cuts may prevent government targets from being fully met.
Tagged: Activity Flow Analytics, Andrew Lansley, Ardentia, cancer, Foundation Trusts, health secretary, monitor, referrals, waiting targets
With the budget cuts imposed on the NHS, trusts are facing the difficult challenge of making savings without job losses, while also ensuring that there is no adverse effect on overall patient experience. Trusts’ top leaders are being forced to scrutinize financial costs down to the smallest details, analysing every operating framework to see where improvements can be made to help make the outlined efficiency savings.
However, in addition to re-evaluating current procedures and driving for maximum efficiency, what other ways are there for trusts to improve revenues? One answer Ardentia offers is Activity Flow Analytics.
Activity Flow Analytics works alongside Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology to show precisely where each referral comes from, as well as showing all other locations for GP referrals. Drop-down menus allow managers to drill down through a range of selectors including speciality, HRG, location, age or gender, meaning trusts can understand how referral flow and market share change according to the kind of case involved. Historical data can also be accessed to assess whether referral rates have increased or decreased, and to help identify the cause for any change.
Having access to this information allows trusts to identify where they are performing strongly and where they are losing out on referrals. Once these areas have been pinpointed, trusts can work to concentrate efforts on improving the volume of referrals handled to ensure that these are bringing in as higher revenue as possible to assist with meeting NHS budget cuts.
Tagged: Activity Flow Analytics, Ardentia, budget cuts, efficiency savings, GP referral, NHS, operational review, patient experience, referral rates, top leaders, Trusts
There has been much controversy recently regarding the government’s announcement of its plans for privatisation and the creation of an NHS agency.
The Department of Health revealed it “planned to explore options with the private sector for potential investment in NHS Professionals’”, according to the Independent. The NHS Professionals agency currently provides staff to cover over 2 million shifts a year in a variety of trusts. The government had previously highlighted their ambitions to move towards allowing patients to be decision-making in the Operating Framework, but with no mention of investment from the private sector.
Plans for privatisation within the NHS have resulted in concerns that some areas of the NHS will suffer, leading to a significant and damaging impact on overall patient experience. If the NHS is to avoid privatisation, then it is more critical than ever for finance managers to have effective control over all spending, to ensure maximum savings.
Ardentia’s Patient Level Costing solution enables trusts to calculate treatment costs accurately and get a clear indication of whether care is being delivered within income. This financial clarity is essential to ensure resources are used effectively, and that the NHS has access to the levels of funding that it requires from the government without the need to search for alternative private investment.
Tagged: Ardentia, Department of Health, NHS, Operating Framework, patient experience, patient level costing, treatment costs
Difficult decisions are being made in the public sector; the increasing cuts and efficiency savings and the pressure that is building on NHS trusts to further squeeze the budget. While these decisions are proving difficult, the coalition government has made it clear that it does not intend to allow quality of care to suffer as a result of efficiency savings.
Ardentia’s latest thought leadership article from CEO Tom Mulhern, has been published on Public Technology, with the article discussing the different ways trusts are looking to better manage their finances in this difficult economic climate: “The issue of having the right information to hand is more urgent than ever, if we want to ensure that savings are made in the right places. I believe there are two key areas in which management information will be particularly valuable.”
Patient Level Information and Costing allows trusts to access financial information down to patient level, eliminating areas of waste. In addition, Pathfinding enables hospitals to successfully monitor patient pathways to ensure that patients get the correct treatment. Both business intelligence solutions will improve not only NHS finances but also patient experience, by providing the important information needed.
To read the full article click here.
Tagged: Ardentia, Business Intelligence, efficiency savings, NHS finance, NHS Trusts, pathfinding, patient experience, patient level costing, public sector, quality of care, Tom Mulhern
E-Health Insider has revealed that all NHS trusts will be ‘obliged’ to either become a foundation trust or merge with one by 2013.
In the latest consultations the Department of Health has outlined new powers for foundation trusts and revealed that trusts may be allowed to fail if not successful.
The consultation also revealed that Monitor (the independent regulator of NHS foundation trusts) will start regulating all providers of NHS care from April 2013, and will become an ‘economic regulator.’
Health secretary Andrew Lansley said: “All NHS trusts will become foundation trusts and they will have greater freedom so they can concentrate on being more responsive to patients.
“Competition and choice will together improve services, stimulate innovation and increase productivity. Monitor will ensure a level playing field that rewards the best and most efficient providers that continuously improve the services for the people they serve.”
Encouraging NHS trusts to become foundation trusts will offer more scope for the NHS to become patient-led, and will potentially allow for decision-making to be made by local communities rather than from top leaders, in a bid to increase patient experience.
Tagged: Department of Health, Foundation Trust, monitor, NHS, NHS Trusts, patient experience, patient-led, top leaders
The Telegraph has reported that nurses are to be reminded of duties that must be carried out in order to provide the highest standard of care and improve overall patient experience.
According to a report released by the National Health Service, a high number of patients have been found to suffer from malnutrition or falls when in hospital, with 70% of those experiencing malnutrition not having this recognised by nurses. The number of patient falls on NHS grounds has been stated as over 200,000 and in addition, 10% of patients in hospital suffered from bed sores.
The report calls for these issues to be recognised and addressed, with nurses central to resolving these issues. Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, Dr Peter Carter, said: “Nurses need the resources to be able to do their jobs well including the right balance and mix of staff in the hospital and the community.”
The emphasis on “quality care” highlighted in the Darzi report has increased alongside the mounted pressure on Trusts as they attempt to make the large amounts of efficiency savings. To ensure that nurses have the correct resources to be able to provide the highest standard of care, business intelligence solutions such as Ardentia’s Service Line Reporting can be put in place to allow nurses to monitor their own performances. The solution helps managers and staff to make improvements to the service they offer by providing Service Lines with the information they need to manage their own performance successfully.
Tagged: Ardentia, business intelligence solutions, Darzi, efficiency savings, NHS, nurses, patient experience, Royal College of Nursing, service line reporting, Trusts
The Guardian has raised the interesting discussion about how the NHS will cope with the huge restructure that is to be carried out. With huge budget restrictions, along with NHS management costs set to be reduced by 45% over the next five years, it begs the question of whether the NHS will survive this transitional period.
The chief executive of the NHS, David Nicholson, last week wrote to senior health service leaders in England to outline what changes would need to be made in order to meet the target changes set out by the government’s white paper. With the scrapping of all strategic health authorities and primary care trusts by 2013, how will this restructure affect the managers and employees working in the health service? There is a danger that if too many changes are made to the NHS, along with redundancies, this may leave the NHS without its most experienced employees, leading to a decline in the quality of patient care.
All NHS leaders have been told that they should not only be meeting their financial, operational and quality targets for this year, but must also prepare to meet “enhanced reporting arrangements”.
To ensure survival for the NHS, senior managers must be prepared to have tighter control of the budget and how it is spent, making sure that money is spent in areas most needed. This is where business intelligence solutions can provide the technology to provide better business decision-making in the NHS. Ardentia’s Patient Level Costing creates reports for NHS managers that are built on actual costs allocated down to patient level, so that any results they contain can be traced back to their underlying cause in real patient care to guarantee that treatment is effective as well as cost-effective. Ensuring that the reduced budget for the NHS is spent in the right way on the right services will allow the NHS to maintain a high standard of care for its patients.
Tagged: Ardentia, budget restrictions, business intelligence solutions, management costs, NHS, NHS leaders, patient level costing, quality of patient care, white paper
The BBC has reported that a consultation has begun on how standards in the NHS in England should be measured. The government says it wants to move away from national targets to a “set of national outcome goals” and the new proposal includes the health service being judged by measures and overall patient experience.
The first set of new standards is to be developed by April 2011 and under the planned shake up of the health service the new NHS commissioning board would use the standards to hold GP groups accountable as well as family doctors who are due to take over NHS budgets for their local community services by 2013. After some controversy last week the government confirmed it would also be keeping the maximum two week wait for an appointment with a cancer specialist for urgent suspected cases.
The new outcome measures will include, wherever possible, information that can be compared internationally with standards in other major economies. This may help more accurate comparisons to be made and allows The Care Quality Commission (CQC) to successfully monitor and regulate the services being offered by the NHS.
As well as these measures the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), is being asked to develop 150 new outline standards for different areas of healthcare to support the new framework.
As budgets are facing ever-increasing restrictions and efficiency savings are required of NHS Trusts delegating the budgets to family GPs could offer an efficient way of ensuring that the doctors providing the care are in charge of where and what the money should be spent on. It is vital for the NHS’ success to have a clear and accurate understanding of where costs are incurred and where services need to be improved.
However, many are still unsure of how the new standards will maintain the level of patient care that the targets ensured. To guarantee that the patient care is not only maintained at a high level but improved, business intelligence solutions can provide NHS Trusts with important data to ensure the highest quality healthcare is provided to patients.
Tagged: business intelligence solutions, cancer, Care Quality Commission, commissioning, efficiency savings, national outcome goals, NHS, NHS budgets, NICE, patient experience
