Reducing unnecessary hospital admissions by enhancing efficiency

We have recruited global supply chain consultancy Crimson & Co to undertake a full review of processes in order to drive greater efficiencies in our intensive at-home clinical service, the medical response team (MRT).

One of the biggest challenges the healthcare sector faces is the drain on resources inflicted by unnecessary hospital admissions. Industry research, as well as input from leading health professionals, suggests that up to one in 20 admissions are not needed. This places extra costs on the NHS, disrupts planned and elective procedures and has a serious impact on the quality of care being offered to patients.

The result is pressure on healthcare service providers such as us to maximise the efficiency and performance of services like those provided by MRT, which sends healthcare professionals out to visit patients in their homes.

The aim of the review is for our clinicians to spend more time with their patients.

As part of the agreement Crimson & Co consultants will work directly with the medical response team to identify critical processes throughout its day-to-day operations. From this, a high-level roadmap will be defined to help identify where efficiencies can be made. The aim is to reduce the amount of time on the road and maximise the time the clinician is spending with the patient.

Unnecessary hospital admissions represent a continued strain on the NHS,” said JonathanLewis, our chief executive. ‘As a result healthcare service providers such as ourselves are absorbing the burden by seeing more and more patients at home.

To ensure the services we are delivering are consistently of a high quality it is imperative we are continually evaluating the processes we have in place. This starts with how we collect information and extends to everything we do to maximise reliability and ensure our clinicians delivery a persistently high quality service to our patients.

Tackling this requires a complete review of our processes so we turned to Crimson &Co for its expertise. We are excited about the opportunities this will afford and it is our community and the patients we serve who will reap the true benefits.

‘There is a clear preference amongst patients to be treated in familiar environments and to reduce the amount of time they spend in hospitals rather than at home,”said Dave Alberts, director at Crimson & Co. ‘In order to achieve this there is a greater emphasis placed on streamlining bureaucracy and paperwork,while maximising the time spent caring for the patient. Addressing issues in the supply chain is critical to identifying where these efficiencies can be made.

It is refreshing to see a healthcare organisation taking such an open attitude towards external advice. In our initial conversations their willingness to absorb best practice and apply it to the service provided to patients was very clear. We are looking forward to continuing the relationship,’ Alberts concluded.

 

28 September 2015