It’s time to unveil the finalists of our Leading Healthcare Awards 2022! Here, we share with our readers the entries, case studies and submissions.
Ultimately, it’s up to our expert panel of judges to decide the deserving winner.
Once you’re done reading the inspiring work of our submissions down below, join us join us at 7pm on 7 April 2022 to find out our winner!
Healthcare Communications
To kick off our Best Example of Efficiencies category, we start with Healthcare Communications for their digital-first solution to support Manchester University NHS FT to ‘rapidly’ validate their elective waiting list.
Healthcare Communications assisted the trust with the clinical prioritisation and validation of its elective waiting lists in order to meet targets set out in the Clinical Prioritisation Programme (CPP) — the third wave of NHS response to COVID-19.
The results of the solution include:
• 14,346 patients validated
• 64% of patients chose to complete validation checks digitally
• 84% of patients completed eTriage forms
• 9000 digital letters accessed
• 2,100 hours of staff time saved (~£25,000 per annum)
• 392 patients responded that they no longer needed treatment
Daniel Gordon, Director of Corporate Resilience, MFT, said of the new digital solution: “The mechanism of contacting patients digitally allowed our teams to just focus on those patients who needed a conversation.
“From an efficiency point of view, another benefit is that we didn’t need to set up an outbound contact centre. To validate their waiting lists, some trusts were calling patients four times per day, whereas our patients could respond digitally, without taking up a considerable amount of admin time, at a time when we didn’t have the capacity to spare.
“Healthcare Communications understand the complexities of the NHS and the turnaround was truly remarkable. Within a week and half, their patient focused solution was deployed at scale and ensured we delivered the best service without adding to staff pressures. We went from potentially needing a call bank to just 2 staff members managing it! I’ve never received that level of responsiveness from any organisation, unparalleled in my experience.”
Jo Dickinson, Service Manager for General Surgery, added: “It helped capture patient choice and supported our work to prioritise the most clinically urgent. Staff loved having everything on one platform, and for our patients the two-way communication was really positive.”
Inhealthcare
Our next entry into the Best Example of Efficiencies category is from Inhealthcare and Surrey Heartlands ICS (Integrated Care System) for their pilot of the Blood Pressure at Home (BP@H) service, which aims to help patients ‘better manage their condition and reduce emergency hospital admissions and attendances at GP Practices’.
The Blood Pressure at Home platform, which links directly to NHS Spine, allows patients to monitor their condition on a long-term basis rather than as a ‘one-off’, using an NHS device to record their blood pressure and heart rate readings on a twice-daily basis.
The platform also removes the extra work of clinicians in needing to contact their patients to remind them to take readings and provide advice.
Dr Jagjit Rai, Partner at St David’s Family Practice, Stanwell, commented: “I’m delighted with the results of our pilot. We’ve demonstrated that patients are happy to monitor their conditions from home, and when they do, they not only develop a better understanding of their condition, but feel empowered to manage it better through remembering to take their medication and making lifestyle choices.
“This will lead to better preventative care for our patients, and also reduce the burden on GP practices as we will receive the patient‘s results electronically rather than having to see them each time. This should result in better health for our patients, fewer patients needing emergency care, and it frees up valuable appointments for more acute patients.”
Mr Gurmit Bhamra, a Surrey Heartlands patient and user of the service, added: “As a result of monitoring and submitting my results, my medication has been changed, and I’ve made some lifestyle changes to help manage my blood pressure better.
“I’ve been doing regular exercises at home every day, as well as moving and walking more, and I’ve changed my diet – eating less, especially in the evening. These small changes are already helping me to feel in control and have had a positive effect on reducing my blood pressure.”
KFM
The following entry in our Best Example of Efficiencies category is from KFM for using their Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to solve healthcare problems for King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KFM employed RPA, a form of business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots known as bots, in their management of KCHT’s healthcare support services, where the technology automated manual and repetitive tasks associated with the trust’s outdated legacy systems.
The RPA technology was designed to provide a cost-effective and efficient way of streamlining tasks which require considerable human effort, as well as to implement the bots in as many areas as possible in hospital life to improve efficiency and ultimately patient care – against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.
KFM’s implementation of the technology at the trust has also meant the processing of COVID-19 swab testing results, which previously had to be collected, compiled and manually entered daily onto the hospital’s rostering system, could be automated by the bots.
Peter Hanover, Admin Assistant, Occupational Health & Wellbeing, King’s College Hospital, said: “The RPA programme has made a big difference in freeing me up for other duties in the Occupational Health Department. Previously, I would spend hours every week inputting data. The automated process can do this much faster and can make results live on Healthroster as soon as results are received.”
On the Robotic Automation, David Hoon, Performance & Implementation Manager, added: “The automation allows us to target our reminder emails so that the recipients do not get into the habit of ignoring “blanket” emails that they feel do not apply to them.”
Florence
The closing entry in our Best Example of Efficiencies category is from Florence for their interconnected tech solution, which helps social care workers and organisations manage their shifts, training and work schedules, quickly and easily.
Florence’s three tech products include Florence Flex, a staff marketplace app; Florence Rota, a rota software; and Florence Academy, a learning management system. The technologies work together to provide social care providers with a system to procure, manage and train staff, affordably and to the highest standard.
On the Florence Rota software, the entry said: “62% of care home managers say their rota takes up the majority of their time per week, mainly due to staff shortage and sickness due to the impact of Covid. Rota was built to address this burden, giving care managers the power to plan their rotas in minutes, not hours, and put their time back into focussing on care.
“Florence Rota removes these problems by helping managers build rotas smoothly, in minutes. Staff are automatically texted daily shift invites, which they accept by tapping a link. The online rota is updated automatically in real time, with no chasing or constant rounds of manual editing needed from managers.”
Michelle, a care home manager at Dene Grange care home, Northumberland, said of Florence Rota: “If it’s an emergency, normally I’d have to ring 50 people, so it makes a big difference – we’re [now] getting 75% shift of gaps covered.”
