Bridging the North-South Divide

Debbie Williams

Blog, Tuesday 13th October 2009

Add Your Comment

It’s official: the North-South divide is happily a thing of the past. In London, at least.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust – one of the largest NHS hospital Trusts in the country – has chosen to deploy business intelligence tools from Ardentia in order to support merger activities and help improve Trust performance.

The Trust is one of a growing number of NHS organisations in the South East and London who have chosen our reporting tools to improve the quality and quantity of clinical and management data

Earlier this year, the Trust’s northern neighbours the North East London NHS Foundation Trust also chose to deploy our healthcare intelligence and reporting tools to optimise financial management and to improve patient care.

Better quality data is crucial to the smooth running of Trust operations, to improve the accuracy of reporting and to be able to monitor performance and make improvements to care delivery.

Ardentia is helping more and more Trusts to achieve this, and our NHS sector experience is an important factor for Trusts during the procurement process.

Tracy Ross Senior ICT Project Manager at the Trust said: “We chose Ardentia because of their experience of pulling together multiple systems across multiple sites, in order to create a standard and unified reporting solution for staff to access the clinical and management data needed to make timely and informed operational decisions.”

Tagged: , , , , , ,

PLICS Progress on the South Coast

admin

Blog, Friday 9th October 2009

Add Your Comment

On the 2nd October, Southampton submitted its Programme Budgeting returns, to schedule, and based for the first time on patient level costs.

This completes this year’s reference costing exercise for the Trust. Southampton is now in the forefront of this kind of work, as one of the still small band of Trusts able to derive Reference Costs and Programme Budgeting returns from the much more detailed, much richer basis that costs at patient level provide.

Meanwhile, thirty miles along the coast, Western Sussex Hospitals have launched their own project to implement the Ardentia PLICS solution. They will benefit significantly from the work done by other sites, including their neighbour Southampton, and also from the fact that they already have an Ardentia data warehouse in place with a former Ardentia employee working in their technical team. A final planning meeting on 5 October saw the formal launch of implementation work with the aim of producing next year’s reference costs from the system.

Barts: An Expensive Lesson Learnt on the Importance of High Quality Data

Debbie Williams

Blog, Thursday 8th October 2009

Add Your Comment

E Health Insider reports on the progress being made by Barts in addressing its 18-week wait Referral to Treatment backlog, which currently stands at 23,000 – the London NHS Trust admits that it could “fail for the delivery of 18 weeks in 2009-10”.

The Trust finance board in September reported that the inability to report on 18-week waits will result in its main commissioner, NHS Tower Hamlets, imposing contract penalties of up to £400,000 per month.

The Trust has acknowledged that poor data quality contributed to the backlog, but says that new systems and processes to manage patients and an 18-week patient tracking list have since been introduced, backed by weekly review by each speciality within the hospital.

The financial stick Barts faces shows just how central high quality data is to the effective running of Trust operations. This is not about hitting Government targets. Bart’s case highlights the fundamental importance of high quality data on so many levels:

It’s about having the accurate data on where patients are in their pathways of care, to be able to ensure timely access to healthcare services, and to offer the highest quality care to patients

It’s about having a clear understanding of resources used to be able to effectively meet demand for healthcare services, and to plan appropriately for future requirements.

It’s about having an accurate financial understanding of the true cost of care delivery at a patient level, to ensure resources are used to maximum effect and to optimise Trust performance.

Tagged: , , , , ,

Survey Shows Need for NPfIT Reform

Debbie Williams

Blog, Wednesday 7th October 2009

Add Your Comment

A major survey by E-Health Insider and Doctors.net.uk has concluded that the majority of IT managers do not wish to scrap the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) but do feel that it should be reformed, which coincides with the Conservatives plans for Health and Social Care IT.

Despite 80% of all IT managers wanting to see a reform in the NPfIT, the doctors who also took part in the survey were keener to see the whole programme scrapped. More that 54% of GPs agreed the programme should be ended followed by 43% of consultants and 25% of junior doctors.

However, doctors also have a different view on why progress implementing IT in the NHS has been so slow, blaming a lack of consultation with clinicians in designing systems.

Despite varying opinions, the survey does demonstrate that all those involved with the NHS recognise the need for a good IT system that meets the needs of doctors, NHS IT professionals and suppliers.

The Tories have suggested that there is need for the central architecture to be ‘dismantled’ and for its multi-billion pound local service provider contract to be renegotiated in favour of more local control over IT decision making. IT professionals also backed interoperability rather than centrally purchased systems as the way forward.

Regardless of what is decided in the coming months, it is safe to stay that there are still a lot of changes to made to NHS IT and all involved, from GPs to IT managers, should be aware that they may not be as straightforward as expected.

Tagged: , , , , ,

Costing and PbR in Mental Health

admin

Latest News, Friday 2nd October 2009

Add Your Comment

Ardentia and North East London presented their collaborative approach to the HFMA on 1 October.

Ardentia is currently working with two Mental Health Trusts implementing our costing solutions.

At North East London Foundation Trust, a Service Line Reporting system is due to go live at the end of the current month, as was explained by Finance Manager Don Lyall from the Trust at the HFMA Mental Health PbR conference on 1 October. The system takes financial data from the Trust’s General Ledger and allocates it to service lines defined on the basis of patient pathways; it then compares the finance data with activity data extracted from the Trust’s RiO Patient Administration System. This allows the Trust to see how it is performing in terms both of volumes of cases treated and the financial implications of that treatment. Financial analysis covers both cost and income, the latter by the assignment of known values from LDPs to individual patients and the allocation of the rest on a basis chosen by the Trust.

Hampshire Partnership Trust is about to start implementing the same system.

A Step to Patient Level Costing

As was pointed out at the HFMA Conference, the approach being taken to Service Line Reporting is such that it can be rapidly extended down to patient level later. The Ardentia view is that Service Line Reporting is a good first step, but all it can reveal is where problems are arising in a Trust; Patient Level Costing can show what treatments or patient types are at the source of the problem. Both North East London and Hampshire have options on proceeding to Patient Level Costing in a subsequent phase of the project.

In addition, Ardentia is actively pursuing the extension of its Mental Health System to handle Clustering and ultimately Payment by Results. North East London are jointly working with Ardentia to design the screens necessary to capture Cluster information, and the data handling functions to ensure that healthcare events and, more importantly, the pathways on which they lie, are associated with the correct Clusters over the correct period.

A Panacea for the Headache of NHS Financial Management

Debbie Williams

Blog, Friday 2nd October 2009

Add Your Comment

With no area of public service immune from the need to make significant cost savings, healthcare organisations need to maximise available resources in order to ensure that more is done with less, and critically, that patient care is not impacted.

Accurate financial management at a Trust and Commissioner level lies at the heart of achieving this.  And whilst the old maxim of looking after the pennies holds true, the size of NHS Trust budgets means it is crucial to be able to effectively monitor and report on income and activity.

With our new Service Level Agreement module Trusts can accurately generate income levels from activity volumes, and can forecast future levels to ensure appropriate levels of resource.  Commissioners can check charges against what should have been generated by the volumes treated, to be able to forecast likely expenditure.

NHS financials are decidedly complex, with invoices dependent on PbR-based figures and locally negotiated values, and affected by the type of care delivered, whether it is elective or non-elective, inpatient or outpatient, and any associated diagnoses or procedure codes.

Our SLA module should hopefully provide a panacea for financial headaches, simplifying this process by providing a single source of information from which to generate data for invoices and give an indication of whether care is being delivered as planned.

The module is currently being trialled at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, where it is being used to support improved management and robust financial control. It will then be rolled out to other Ardentia clients among both Trusts and PCTs.

Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

NHS Ranked Middle of the League

Debbie Williams

Blog, Tuesday 29th September 2009

Add Your Comment

The Mirror reported today that the NHS has been ranked 14th out of 33 European countries by the Euro Health Consumer Index in its annual league table. Holland was in the top-spot, with Denmark and Iceland second and third respectively.

The results are compiled using patient data, access to medicines and information provision.

Although the NHS has moved up 3 places since last year, it was criticised over poor waiting times and overall quality. The organisation has insisted this result was based on old data and a spokesperson has said. “The NHS is treating more people and saving more lives than at any time in its history with waiting times at their lowest levels since records began.”

Despite progress being made I think it is safe to say there is still a long way to go for the NHS, especially in improving waiting times. The RTT deadline has now long passed, therefore this is one area that Trusts need to really focus on if the NHS is going to be top of the league.

Tagged: , ,

Fear for Increased Waiting Lists

Debbie Williams

Blog, Tuesday 29th September 2009

Add Your Comment

It has been reported this week that Belfast Health Trust will no longer be able to refer patients to the private sector for operations due to a lack of funds.

Patients requiring knee, hip, heart and cataract operations are often referred to private clinics to help reduce waiting times but as the Trust can no longer afford to do this, inevitably waiting times are expected to rise.

Funds are tight for many businesses in the current climate and the NHS is no different so it is to be expected that there will be some areas that will feel the strain from a lack of funding, however it is important that patient care does not suffer as a result.

As the deadline for the 18-week wait has now long passed, trusts should be well on top of their patient data. By having a clear view of where patients are on their pathway of care, trusts can ensure the right resources are allocated efficiently, to guarantee timely access to care.

With budgets cuts ahead, and winter round the corner – with all the additional demand this brings, it’s vital that trusts keep control of their patient waiting times, to ensure high quality patient care.

Our Pathway Manager solution gives clinicians and managers a clear overview of where patients are in their pathway of care, flagging up potential issues at an early stage to avoid any breaches and ensure patients get the access to care they deserve.

Tagged: , , , ,

Labour’s £20 Billion NHS Efficiency Drive

Debbie Williams

Blog, Tuesday 22nd September 2009

Add Your Comment

The Telegraph has reported on health secretary Andy Burnham’s address to the King’s Fund, where he spoke of the need to find £15 – £20 billion of savings within the NHS by 2014.  The NHS Confederation welcomed the overdue ministerial acknowledgement, but also warned of the challenges health service organisations would face as a result.

This is not the sort of cash you find down the back of the sofa.

In the face of swingeing budget reallocations (there will be no spending cuts, we’re told), hospitals will face the challenge of increasing efficiency, reducing operational overheads and doing more with less.

If Trusts are to realise the cost savings expected of them, they will have to operate on a robust business footing, ensuring resources are used efficiently and that care is delivered within income.

Access to good quality, accurate data is central to achieving this.  Trust management and clinical leaders need to know the true cost of care, and the charges associated with everything from theatre minutes and ward days through to prescriptions and floor space usage.

It’s only by having a clear view of costs incurred at a patient level that Trusts will be able to take the steps needed to ensure they receive the correct payment for the care delivered, and also to help eliminate any inefficiencies

Such an approach is vital, if the expected savings are to be made without impacting on frontline care delivery.

Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Having Knowledge on Your Side

Debbie Williams

Blog, Friday 18th September 2009

Add Your Comment

A recent report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has criticised the government for not delivering the correct management skills when deploying the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in the NHS.

The report, ‘Learning and Innovation in Government’, states that while it is encouraging that more expertise is being brought into Government, it is still the internal skills that are lacking.

PAC argue that things will continue to go wrong if internal staff are not trained properly prior to deployment and rely too heavily on external contractors. In-house teams must have a full understanding of the technology so they can manage projects effectively, see problems arising before it’s too late and also make the most out of the relationships with contractors.

It is vital before entering any software deployment that appropriate resource has been allocated to the project and in-house management are fully aware of the process. External IT contractors will not be there 24/7 during the deployment and if mistakes are being made in the meantime, an already long-term project could take even longer.

Tagged: , ,

Page 20 of 35« First...10181920212230...Last »