The bespoke module was created for Torbay as a supplementary service from MedeAnalytics in addition to the UK Performance Network solution the trust already utilises. The UK Performance Network is delivered in partnership with the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and provides subscribers with dashboards, status reports and alerts on their own key performance indicators and offers the ability to compare performance across other subscriber organisations, enabling best practice across the NHS. Torbay will transform data extracts from existing systems into reporting and analytics that arm the Trust with actionable business intelligence to drive efficiencies across primary, secondary and acute care.
Understanding the imminent need for cost savings within the NHS as outlined in the 'Liberating the NHS' whitepaper, Torbay Care Trust recognised the importance of selecting a solution that would be able to intelligently provide visual data on costs across both health and social care services in the region. Trudy Corsellis, head of business planning and performance at Torbay Care Trust, comments, "In the Torbay region we have a higher than average elderly population when compared to national figures, and this tends to create pressure on the local healthcare system due to that demographic group's ongoing health and social care costs. As health and social care services are prescribed by differing organisations throughout the region, we had an assumption that these services were potentially being duplicated for a number of these patients and that there must therefore be a better way of meeting the needs of those individuals more effectively."
Corsellis adds, "Through utilising MedeAnalytics' solution, we will be able to uniquely map health and social care costs at patient level, something that I believe has not been achieved elsewhere. With access to intelligent informatics in an intuitive visual display, we plan to analyse the complex groups of patients who receive multiple services to assess where there is a need for service redesign, with the intention of minimising needless repeat patient visits to hospital and to direct patients to the appropriate healthcare service in the community. For example, many of our elderly patients are at risk of falls, and the care required following such an incident can become extremely costly to both health and social care services. By analysing the data within the MedeAnalytics solution, we can work out how much this is currently costing each department and reallocate costs for preventative measures."
Corsellis continues, "Transparent access to NHS costs viewable alongside social care costs will help us put into context the totality of services delivered to this complex group of patients. Analysing information in this way means we will be able to quickly look at how these costs can be moved around in the system in order to release financial savings, whilst improving the responsiveness and quality of patient care."
Furthermore, Torbay Care Trust is using the MedeAnalytics solution to review patient costs in terms of age of demographic. Corsellis comments, "The population as a whole is ageing and it is therefore paramount that we are able to understand how trends are changing. We are then able to plan our services and distribute our resources accordingly, helping give elderly patients a better quality of life."
Corsellis adds, "We have always had the information at our fingertips but spread across disparate systems and from multiple sources. To be able to access all this information and in one intuitive easy to view format is ground-breaking for us. At the push of a button we can see both health and social care costs enabling Torbay to forecast accurately, plan for service redesign and become a more efficient care community."
Corsellis concludes, "The MedeAnalytics visual system is an extremely powerful solution. It is receiving increasing clinician engagement - both within secondary care and within the local GP consortia. More recently, interest from some local authorities within the South West has also become apparent as they seek to benchmark the costs of their services. We expect the data delivered by MedeAnalytics will greatly assist local healthcare organisations in planning for service redesign where necessary. We believe the solution will give Torbay a distinct advantage over other PCTs as we face our toughest financial challenge yet."
About MedeAnalytics
Founded in 1994, MedeAnalytics enables healthcare organisations to improve clinical, financial and operational performance through on-demand analytics and client services.
MedeAnalytics provides acute sector hospitals and foundation trusts with solutions to address Payment by Results (PbR), quality, innovation, productivity and prevention (QIPP), patient pathways, clinical quality, service line reporting, patient-level costing, staff productivity, regulatory compliance and enterprise performance management.
For commissioners, the company provides solutions for world-class commissioning, vital signs, polyclinic planning and referral management.
Worldwide, MedeAnalytics delivers business intelligence to over 800 healthcare organisations using a hosted, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, which reduces up-front costs and enables rapid implementation and exceptional time-to-value.
For more information, visit http://medeanalytics.co.uk.