Testimonials
We have worked with numerous sites across England already, and their feedback speaks volumes. Read below to find out how this product is transforming practices, and their demand and capacity management.
The tool has provided a benchmark for us as an organisation. It’s made us realise how we use and utilise business intelligence is pitival in how we shape services.
The data we received from the pack was quite distinct from our main clinical system. Putting the data together was something we couldn’t do within our existing clinical system. The pack was helpful in having that analysis on top of the data we already had…and has helped us immensely. The process of collecting the data was quite fun. It was nice to get everyone else involved and every member of the team was told about the process and it brought the entire practice together.
Bilal Patel
GP Executive Partner for Finance and Estates and SHP
What the data packs told us, after we had been through the process, was that there were a number of areas where we were booking patients in, but not necessarily with the correct clinician. We couldn’t have gotten the information that was in the pack from our system without using the audit tool. It gave us a lot of evidence supported through a very large and structured audit that we could use and implement change.
My advice to any practice considering the tool going forward would be to absolutely take it onboard. It’s very worthwhile in investing your time into doing it.
Steve New
Chief Executive Officer for SHP
It would be really difficult for any organisation in Primary Care to obtain the data that we got from this tool. It was instrumental in helping us understand the information that we hadn’t had before.
The tool allowed us to really crunch down on the information that was pivotal for our organisation in terms of data that we needed which wasn’t depicted in our own IT systems. What this tool does, is allow practices to realise their data, and then use it in a much more meaningful way. I would encourage all practices to take up the offer of this tool to enable them to unleash their information and shape services going forward.
Dr Nish Patel
PCN Director
It was a huge report and it has harvested a lot of data. Each time I read it I gleen other nuggets I haven’t come across previously.
Since this work we have become more proactive. The analysis has led to us redesigning our appointment systems … it has reduced the pressure on urgent care. The data pack is a great reference and resource for us and is one that we use extensively since it was produced and we continue to use it. To get that data into a distilled report and to identify the opportunities and analyse it as it has, we hadn’t as a team the expertise to do that and I would suspect that is the case with the large majority of primary care providers in the UK. The Tool was instrumental in helping us understand information we hadn’t had before.
Dr Majid Ali
GP Partner
How it works in practice
Curious to explore the real impact of our tool?
Watch our video testimonial featuring Solihull Healthcare Partnership, where you can hear first-hand accounts of their transformative journey through the unlocked data in practice.
CASE STUDY
Optimising Demand & Capacity at Sherwood Rise Medical Practice, Nottingham
Sherwood Rise Medical Practice in Nottingham has previously faced significant access issues. When a new leadership was brought in to turn around the struggling practice they made a number of improvements to practice operations over many years but wanted to continue and expand their improvement journey, particularly as they felt they had reached the limit of their current ways of working and supporting data.
The practice decided to implement the General Practice Demand and Capacity Optimisation Tool (DCOT) to help visualise data they hadn’t been able to see before as their next step of their improvement journey.
Today, Sherwood Rise is a very good practice, though it serves one of the most deprived areas of Nottingham.
Facing Capacity Challenges
With a highly complex patient base with diverse language and cultural needs, Sherwood Rise was struggling with immense telephone pressures and running out of appointments rapidly. The practice recognised it needed to find new ways to optimise how it matched supply with demand for its services.
Implementing the Demand & Capacity Optimisation Tool (DCOT)
The practice implemented the General Practice Demand and Capacity Optimisation Tool to gain insights into the true nature of patient demand beyond just appointment activity data. An intensive one-week data collection provided a unique dataset that was analysed to pinpoint opportunities.
The tool's analytics visualised demand patterns, allowing the practice to see which patients could be better signposted to other services like pharmacists. It highlighted bottlenecks, challenges around resolving patient queries first time and clinical variation in their ways of working (and the impact that had on the practice).
Driving Positive Changes
Analysing and discussing the DCOT data was a ‘turning point’ that united the practice team around enacting meaningful changes.
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Improving how receptionists triaged and signposted patients to appropriate services
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Understanding how the language used by clinicians impacted the reattendance rates of their patients
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Proactively communicating with patients via text about prescriptions, wait times etc.
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Streamlining how patient queries were handled in a consistent manner
The data insights also created productive meetings where staff could openly discuss opportunities for improvement in a blame-free manner. Having the data visualised made it real and involved everyone in understanding demand patterns and come up with improvement ideas that they could all follow so they were all ‘on the same page’. This allowed them to feel like they were an improving team and staff morale sored.
Sustained Improvements
By optimising how it matched its capacity to true patient demand, the practice saw a reduction in call volumes, better allocation of clinical consultations and higher staff morale. Patients were getting their needs addressed more appropriately and efficiently and appointments were regularly still available after the usual 8am until 11am rush.
The data became a talking point displayed in the staff room on the wall, keeping attention on continued optimisation. The practice reported the tool and new processes were "great team building" and fostered a cohesive, positive energy around improvement.
In analysing the data, the practice made the surprising discovery that while it had 8,000 registered patients, only around 3,000 actively sought care. This allowed them to size services more accurately to demand.
Through using the analytics and optimising processes from the tool, Sherwood Rise transformed the care they were able to provide to their patients, positively impacting the experience of thousands of people.
