Kumar Medical Centre in Slough is utilizing a inhabitants well being administration strategy to revolutionise its annual NHS High quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) to assist unlock time for extra appointments and optimise affected person outcomes.
By organising its QOF critiques utilizing a segmented strategy, the Kumar Medical Centre is liberating up beneficial medical time for the busy winter interval, in addition to enhancing affected person outcomes for its extra advanced sufferers.
Utilizing the Affected person Want Teams (PNGs) segmentation device within the Johns Hopkins Adjusted Scientific Teams (ACG) System, the healthcare workforce had been in a position to determine its most advanced sufferers early within the yr and perform deliberate QOF appointments earlier than seasonal pressures started and when sources had been extra versatile.
On the NHS Confederation Expo 2023, held in June this yr, a panel of clinicians and alter administration specialists informed the viewers that inhabitants well being administration has the potential to remove a number of the legwork in well being visits.
The ACG System is a world methodology for predictive inhabitants evaluation. PNGs categorise sufferers into 11 mutually unique segments based mostly on their general degree of complexity as soon as making an allowance for all of their diagnoses.
The Kumar Medical Centre workforce was in a position to phase sufferers within the Slough area who wanted a QOF evaluation, based mostly on which PNG they had been in, and use this metric to resolve when to see the affected person, the kind of healthcare skilled who might assess their general want, and whether or not the affected person may very well be reviewed utilizing digital expertise, or required a head to head appointment.
Dr Kumar mentioned: ‘Through the use of a inhabitants well being administration strategy and a single metric we appear to have solved the perennial downside of not having sufficient appointments within the winter months.
“By figuring out our most advanced sufferers utilizing the Johns Hopkins PNGs early within the monetary yr, we are able to optimise their well being earlier than autumn and winter and scale back the danger of emergency admissions.
“Primarily, we evaluation sufferers in accordance with complexity slightly than their date of beginning, that means we are able to allocate the precise healthcare skilled to the precise affected person on the proper time whereas making essentially the most environment friendly use of our personnel.
“Utilizing PNGs, we have now organised our sources to work rather more effectively – the principal is basically easy – however actually efficient.’”
Utilizing the inhabitants well being administration device, the Slough centre has been in a position to evaluation all of its most advanced sufferers and full 70% of QOF critiques by September 2023 – compared to simply 33% the yr earlier than.
This has allowed them to extra successfully use medical time, scale back the necessity for repeated appointments and create very important GP and medical capability inside the system.