The report looks at how trusts in England have been gathering, analysing and interpreting patient-level information to give clinicians a complete view of the care delivered to patients, and the associated costs. This in turn enables meaningful, evidence-based dialogue between commissioners and providers.

The report focuses on Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, and how it produces a detailed account of care services delivered and costs for every patient it treats, as a result of implementing Ardentia’s Patient Level Costing solution.

Tom said: “At that level of granularity, Trusts are able to get into comparing treatment costs for patients with similar conditions across different clinicians. It is not an easy process but the value from what you can achieve is enormous.”

You can read the full EHI report here

The Trust is using a solution that allows them to drill down to patient level, analyse the cost components e.g. theatre time, medical staff time, ward and drug costs etc and compare these against the income received for the patient’s treatment.

Fiona said: “The solution provides you with an insight that you just don’t get as a management accountant working with a hospital division. We can begin to see where practice differs and how this drives costs. We have managed to find areas where our local policies were not set appropriately and this has influenced next year’s contracting decisions”

She believes that this level of insight will  help significantly as Trusts prepare for the evolving commissioning landscape .

You can read the full interview here

The Show runs from Tuesday 14th – Wednesday 15th June at ExCel in London’s Docklands and focuses on the current challenges facing the NHS and how the latest healthcare IT solutions can help address them.

We’ll be showcasing our key business intelligence solutions for Acute, Commissioners and Mental Health Trusts. So drop by and we’ll show you how our powerful web-based analysis and reporting, patient level costing, care pathway and payment by results solutions can help you unlock the real answers in your data that will enable you to improve patient care, service delivery and financial control.

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.

The Primary Health Care Specialist Group (PHCSG) has warned that failure to apply the proper governance may result in the use of patient data being blocked nationally.

At the Primary Health Info conference, Ewan Davis, who leads the work for the PHCSG, said that the Group has been investigating the use of secondary data following concerns from members about what PCTs are planning to do with it.

Davis highlighted the fact that the NHS needs to ensure that any information used is adequately anonymised by use of the best privacy enhancing technologies.

Ardentia’s Pseudonymisation solution has been designed to help Trusts use patient data safely, in accordance with Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice.

By enabling Trusts to generate pseudonyms to remove key identifiers that may associate a treatment pathway with a particular individual, patient confidentiality is upheld and privacy issues are resolved.

To find out more about Ardentia’s Pseudonymisation tool, click here.

MRI scans and heart sonograms are amongst the 15 tests included in the report, with almost 11,000 people waiting more than 6 weeks for these key diagnoses in March 2011.

According to the Mail Online, the topic has caused ‘heated rows’ between Labour Leader Ed Milliband and PM David Cameron, as figures have risen by 184% since the change in Government last year.

Ardentia’s Waiting Lists reporting solution helps monitor patient activity and notifies users of waiting times that will exceed local and national standards. Healthcare professionals can also analyse monthly trends and compare waiting times by operative procedure to provide effective waiting list management.

To find out more about Ardentia’s solutions, click here

The Department of Health has announced plans to create a new body to support health informatics in England, after months of meetings with NHS IT staff.

The meetings were held to discuss ideas on what support is needed in the future in order to improve the flow of informatics throughout the NHS, whilst encouraging and assisting in the modernisation of the service.

A spokesman for the DoH said: “Information is central to delivering the government’s vision for patients being at the heart of high quality healthcare and we are currently considering the best way to provide the informatics support that will enable this.”

Read the full article here.

Tom argues that emerging GP commissioning consortia need to use IT to plan and buy care at the right price, and discusses the importance of patient pathways.

He claims that the emergence of GP consortia, as the purchasers of most NHS treatment, should mean that quality of care is scrutinised more closely than ever before. However, Tom believes that this is not always a foregone conclusion.

Click here to read the full article.

NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson had previously told hospitals that they needed to find 4 per cent savings each year for the next five years in order to maintain services, taking into account the rising costs of medical treatments, increased demand and the smaller rises in NHS budget.

Monitor has now told foundation trust applicants that they must find savings in the region of 6-7 per cent in order to achieve foundation trust status by 2014. The Department of Health said Monitor’s assessments are challenging but “wants all hospitals to be able to meet Monitor’s standards and show that they can provide sustainable, high quality and efficient services for their patients.”

In order to achieve these savings, clinicians and managers need to have a solution in place that enables them to track and remove inefficiencies and areas of waste.

Ardentia’s Activity Flow Analytics (AFA) allows finance managers to access information on data such as outpatient attendance, trends, patient location and treatment requirements. With this information readily available, Trusts are in a better position to find ways of saving money efficiently; ensuring resources are being used effectively whilst delivering high standards of care.

You can read the full article on Healthcare Today here

According to sources, Cameron has decided to turn to NHS Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson for advice on the reform in place of health secretary Andrew Lansley, as the Liberal Democrats put more pressure on him to change the planned reform.

The retreat has triggered concern throughout the NHS, with managers left to wonder whether the reform is in jeopardy. As the NHS begins the disbanding of PCTs, managers are considering the impact the delay will have considering the current staff cuts and financial constraints.

NHS Confederation acting chief executive, Nigel Edwards said: “On Friday the NHS let go 1,500 managers, and a significant number of primary care trust managers have been left go in the last few weeks. We may need to rehire some of these people and this is astonishing.”

As the NHS deals with controversy during these uncertain times, there is an increasing need for robust, accurate and high quality data in order for Trusts to survive the constant flux of the NHS.

Business intelligence solutions provide managers with the necessary tools to collect extensive data, enabling them to sustain rigorous financial control and efficient business management.

To find out more, talk to Ardentia.