Partnering with County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust on radiology service improvement

By Philips ∙ Feb 01, 2019 ∙ 2 min read

Hospital operations

Services

Philips managed services

Through County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust’s existing Managed Service strategic partnership, Philips and the Trust launched a service improvement project. The project included delivery of an operational informatics solution, complementing existing systems, designed to provide visibility of performance and to assist in identifying opportunities for improving patient flow.

The project has delivered real-time visibility of the Trust’s departmental workflow, which together with significant staff commitment and flexibility, has enabled several continuous improvement benefits. This includes a 35% increase in MR scan activity at one Trust site, with the associated improvements in patient experience.

Case study at a glance

Partner

As part of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust’s existing Managed Service strategic partnership, Philips and the Trust launched a service improvement project.

Challenge

The partners identified the need to innovate the radiology service and capitalize on the opportunities of data driven decision making, to transform patient workflows and maximize efficiency of new equipment.

Solution

The project consisted of multiple focused workstreams aimed at enabling the Trust to optimize the efficiency of the radiology service through introducing new techniques, service pathways and quality management.

Results

Over 80 Radiology department staff have been trained, staff feedback has been embodied in departmental change and there has been + 35% increase in MR exam throughput, reduced MR cycle times and better scheduling.

Moving far beyond a traditional supplier partnership to deliver radiology service improvement

In 2018, CDDFT and Philips agreed a 14-year Managed Service partnership focused on introducing the latest, cutting-edge diagnostic imaging equipment, combined with transformational service improvements. Together through CoCreate workshop sessions, Philips and the Trust identified the need to transform the service and capitalize on the opportunities of data driven decision making, to transform their patient workflows and maximize the efficiencies of their new radiology equipment. To achieve this, the partnership launched a service improvement project.

A key challenge for radiology at the Trust was improving service efficiency while enhancing quality and patient experience. This could only be achieved by engaging its increasingly busy staff, at all levels in the department, in systematic improvement activity.

The service improvement project started one year into the Managed Service partnership. The project consisted of multiple focused workstreams aimed at enabling the Trust to optimize the efficiency of the radiology service through introducing new techniques, service pathways and quality management; all elements working together to ultimately improve patient care and satisfaction.

Results*

To date, the first part of the partnership, the service improvement project has delivered:

Near real-time visibility of departmental workflow: Implementing the PerformanceBridge solution making performance data visible to drive continuous improvement

Ability to highlight areas of criticality: Patient flow improvement opportunities identified through analysing radiology workflow data (CRIS).

Tangible workflow efficiency: A gain of 50 additional MR patients per week at one site

Modality leads and teams feel confident to use operational data: Coaching and educational programs delivered staff confident to create their own dashboards

Over 80 Radiology department staff trained: Staff trained in foundation (or bronze) level quality improvement training to drive a performance improvement culture

Staff feedback embodied in departmental change: The staff experience survey focused on staff perception regarding identified improvement areas to build the transformation around staff pain points

Over 35% increase in MR exam throughput: Compared to pre-COVID19 performance patient flow improved, supporting effective management of waiting times.

Reduced MR cycle times and better scheduling: Released c and improved patient experience

Dashboards make the patient experience visible: Patient turnaround times (TATs) for cancer, routine and inpatient referrals are tracked as key metrics for each modality and site allowing patient waiting times to be proactively managed.

*Results from case studies are not predictive of results in other cases. Results in other cases may vary.