By David Botham, Intern, Reform
Saving money and improving care will
be the holy grail of health reform in the next Parliament. At a Reform seminar this week leaders from
University Hospitals Birmingham explained how they achieved quality and
efficiency.
Rather than spending more or driving
attempts to drive change from the centre. University Hospitals Birmingham
brought real reform to the front line. Two initiatives made improvement
possible. First, clinicians were made responsible and accountable for the care
they delivered. This was rigorously enforced. The hospital has sacked more
consultants than the rest of the NHS put together, including six in one go. Second,
the hospital invested in an in-house designed IT system for prescribing
information and patient records.
Now all staff have access to up to
1200 electronic patient charts at any one time through hand held tablet and
mobile PCs. The benefits are clear and immediate.
In all instances errors are
prevented at the point of decision:
- Improved infection control.
Anyone testing as MRSA positive is immediately flagged by the system and
automatically prescribed the appropriate drug therapy
- Patient charts show when a
drug is being prescribed and by whom.
The IT system also monitors quality
and efficiency through “clinical dashboards”, digital displays of up-to-date
information on the running of hospital wards.
- These “clinical dashboards”
allow efficient use of beds, as well as monitoring a patient’s length of stay
and have allowed Birmingham’s Hospitals to reduce waiting times.
- Staff activity and efficiency
is carefully monitored. Making clinicians accountable for their performance.
- There is also the capability
of getting real time feedback from patients about the quality of care they are
receiving.
Birmingham Hospitals’ information
revolution paved the way for increased productivity and reduced waiting times. Accountability
and IT enabled clinicians to deliver better care and control costs.
