Monday 19 December 2011

Scarborough Acute NHS Trust Uses New Technology To Reduce Patient Mortality Ratios

• NHS Trust deploys QlikView Business Discovery platform to gain a clearer view of patient data and aid in daily decision-making

Infrastructure and software solutions Value Added Reseller, Trustmarque, announced today that it has successfully deployed QlikView, a business intelligence tool, to help Scarborough Acute NHS Trust connect and compile data from its different information systems to aid in critical clinical decision making to help reduce mortality ratios.

Scarborough Acute NHS Trust is a North Yorkshire based healthcare and NHS trust which delivers hospital services to a population of 240,000. Employing 2,400 staff, it is the largest employer in the area. The Trust was looking for a new tool to help connect and pull data from its various different information systems to enable its clinicians, managers and consultants to easily create visual reports, charts and tables that would help them in their day-to-day decision making to improve not only clinical care, but also help them to monitor more closely and bring down mortality rates.

“Excel was pervasive within the organisation but the reports became instantly out of date and were difficult to maintain,” explains Manni Imiavan, Head of Information, Directorate of Finance & Procurement. “We had a number of different tools in play which all had strengths and weaknesses, but none seemed to tick all the boxes.”

Scarborough had a longstanding relationship with Trustmarque so it was the first port of call when looking to procure a dashboard tool. Trustmarque first provided Scarborough with consultancy to better understand its business objectives and then information and demonstrations on a selection of tools that it felt would meet the needs of the Trust.

“After speaking with our account manager and Business Intelligence Practice Lead they were able to identify a range of products that we hadn’t considered, one of them being QlikView,” comments Imiavan. “What really sold us on QlikView was the fact that Trustmarque was actually able to provide us with a demo of the product using dashboards created specifically for the NHS.”

Following the selection of QlikView, Trustmarque also provided Scarborough with the technical support required to ensure the smooth deployment of the new technology across the organisation.

Imiavan continues: “In December 2010 we started getting quotes and within four weeks QlikView was implemented within our Trust. Trustmarque provided technical support and conducted onsite training at the time of installation, and those who attended benefited hugely. Users could start building bespoke dashboards for different clinical directorates within the Trust straight away and were also able to pass on their knowledge to those who hadn’t received the Trustmarque training. The value of Trustmarque really is in its service offering.”

QlikView is now pervasive across the Scarborough NHS Trust and has been used to automate waiting list management and enhance KPI reporting. QlikView has allowed service users to interact with their own data in a way they have never been able to do before.

“Clinicians and senior managers now use QlikView daily to help in decision making. It provides a view of key information from all case notes and clinical reviews, can be used to drill down patient pathways and disseminate information. As a result, clinicians are able to compile more accurate and current data on mortality ratios due to the enhanced self-service analysis and increased visibility of patient information. All our clinical divisions also now rely on QlikView dashboards for performance management,” states Imiavan.

“There’s no doubt it has saved us money and a lot of time. At one point we had seriously considered getting external people in to do our dashboards, which would have cost us £500 per day. With the training we have received from Trustmarque we have been able to do everything in-house. The investment we have made in QlikView has undoubtedly been one of the most significant strategic decisions taken over the past few years.”

“Business intelligence can help health managers get the most out of the data available. Health care institutions are not short of information, but the challenge lies in making this data usable and being able to understand what it means, and this is where QlikView can play its part,” concludes Mike Cawthorn, Practice Lead for Trustmarque’s Business Performance Management team.

“With increasing targets to improve patient care, coupled with reduced budgets, it is a very hard time for the NHS. Using technology to reduce the burden of reporting and to give a clearer view to support a business case for investment is critical at this time and we would strongly urge all institutions to take Scarborough’s lead.”

Sean Farrington, RVP Northern Europe & MD UK & Ireland at QlikTech, added, “The ability to access, analyse and use data and information is vital across all businesses and organisations. Having the tools to enable all users to gain quick and easy visibility of the latest information in real-time is the next step in the discovery phase, and seeing the QlikView Business Discovery platform in action across the Scarborough NHS Trust means that all users will be empowered in the critical decision-making that goes into reducing waiting times and mortality rates.”

FACTFILE:
Trustmarque is a market-leading Value Added Reseller and provider of technology services and solutions to UK private and public sector organisations. Trustmarque has been a trusted advisor to customers on issues relating to technology for over 24 years, helping companies to make sense of their complex IT environments by unlocking the value of technology, improving efficiencies and reducing costs.

Trustmarque holds ISO9001/2000, ISO14001, OHSAS18001 and ISO27001 certifications, is OGC accredited and has achieved the Investors in People standard. In addition Trustmarque’s employees are ITIL and PRINCE2 qualified.

Trustmarque has also worked with The CarbonNeutral Company (formerly Future Forests) leaders in the field of carbon management and climate change solutions to become a CarbonNeutral® company.

For details on how Trustmarque can help your hospital or service, visit www.trustmarque.com, call 0845 2101 500, or email: info@trustmarque.com.

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