I was visiting a friend in Coronary Care this week and in talking to the nursing team on the Unit was struck by how much even here they felt touched by the confusion and concerns that flow from the scale of change now being proposed for the NHS.
Trying to map the current state and future intentions of this plan for change defies most observers. The UK’s Guardian newspaper recently picked up a Labour party storyline to illustrate this situation (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/05/labour-ridicules-cameron-nhs-structure) but whether you are in Government, in Opposition or just one of the 1.5million employees in the NHS trying to do your best for patients the breadth and scale of the change is clearly very fundamental.
In his excellent book The Innovator's Prescription, Clayton Christensen looks at the health industry in the United States and asks from where does the overarching vision for change come? "We need," says Christensen, " ...'the visible hand of managerial capitalism' – the deliberate involvement of an integrated provider whose scope encompasses a complete system. Only with a systemic perspective can the real merit of specific activities ... be assessed." In the USA Christensen would argue that this visible hand is missing - but here in the UK many would say we are lucky to have exactly that.
Well, whilst the Coalition Government may not have a strategic vision for Health that in any way matches the prescription of Christensen, it is clearly wrestling with one imperative that he clearly defines ... "the need to transform expensive, complicated products and services into ones that are higher in quality, lower in cost and more conveniently accessible..."
The next step in the journey to deliver such an outcome is the achievement of the £20Bn of savings required of the NHS. To reach this goal it will be essential to approach the challenge with new thinking. In the age of mass social networking and at a time of flattening management structures, it is surely a natural progression for NHS management to find a way for all staff and stakeholders to engage appropriately in contributing on the critical initiatives and programmes that will be required?
xpoint®, Element8's unique informatics solution, was developed with exactly this type of new thinking in mind. It supports teams and organisations in the collaborative achievement of fast and effective change, helping apply the "Do Once and Share" philosophy which is enabling the much needed avoidance of duplication within NHS communities and at the same time ensuring measurable benefits and improved governance.
xpoint provides a unique user-centric approach to supporting teams delivering ANY processes - be they Productives, Pathways, LEAN, QIPP, sophisticated PMO or simple PDSA work, or in fact any process improvement, transformation or cultural change activity. These can then be mapped to support other entities and organisations, delivering on the promise of "Further, Faster, Together".
xpoint’s unique capabilities are able to support many key aspects of this changing NHS.
- operational delivery teams benefit from getting their familiar core processes provided in a systemised environment with a wide range of tools to guide and support the work they do
- project and programme teams are able to maintain an effective view of all key activities and therefore can manage by exception
- leadership teams can achieve a simplified and consolidated overview of the complex portfolio of change and can accurately track the measurable financial benefits it delivers
- regulatory and oversight bodies are able to see progress, benefit capture and alignment from "one version of the truth".
Proven in the Private Sector – and with a broadening adoption in the NHS – xpoint is an integrated whole-system approach capable of providing effective support at all levels of the organisation, of helping identify and drive out inefficiencies and at the same time of increasing the effectiveness of your change programme.
To learn more about what the NHS think about xpoint please visit:
http://www.element8software.com/nhs-quality-and-productivity
