In an article on GPonline, Ardentia’s CEO Tom Mulhern provides an insight into why GP consortia – as planned NHS commissioners – need to work with sophisticated patient pathways to truly understand whether a provider can offer efficient and effective services.
Tom explains the ‘yawning gap’ that can exist between simplistic figures representing a ‘typical’ pathway and actual patient experience witnessed by individual consultants.
For commissioners, this means they need an additional layer of data to really discover what is happening at the core of a provider’s system and effectively evaluate its offering.
Tom said: “If GP consortia are to be effective commissioners, they must ensure their healthcare IT lets them make ‘apples with apples’ comparisons between providers.
“Seeing data showing what happens to a patient cohort at different stages in the pathway is a world away from the genuinely illuminating ability to follow and analyse individual cases from referral to discharge.”
To read the full article on GPonline click here.
