“What Good Looks Like” in practice
Last month NHSX published a new digital framework “What Good Look Like” (WGLL), intended to provide a “North Star” to work towards for Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) developing their strategies.
Seven success measures of What Good Looks Like
Source: NHSX
WGLL places ICSs as the central point of digital strategy and financial decisions, in a shift from the responsibility being on trusts, and is one of the most highly publicised pieces of NHSX guidance in recent months.
However, on inspection, the WGLL framework provides very little in the way of practical or specific guidance on how to achieve digitisation within ICSs, with the seven headings and descriptions reading more as high-level aspirations than a clear path.
There are several areas where we believe we could provide not only a map of how to achieve some of the aspirations, but also where we already provide digital technology that can support their realisation. Below, we have outlined five of the seven areas from the WGLL framework where Infinity Health could make a meaningful difference, and how.
If any of the what we discuss in this article could help you tackle some of your digitisation challenges, please do get in touch by emailing [email protected]
Success measure: ensure smart foundations
What the guidance says: Digital, data and infrastructure operating environments are reliable, modern, secure, sustainable and resilient. There is cross-organisation investment in modern infrastructure to retire unsupported systems.
Infinity is a digital task management platform providing a modern alternative to paper “to-do” lists, non-emergency bleeps, and unsupported task management systems being used within the NHS - like Microsoft Access. It operates across mobile, tablet and desktop devices.
Infinity allows care providers from different specialties, organisations, and sectors (e.g. healthcare, social care, council) to contribute to and access key real-time information about patients, from anywhere. This not only gives a clear picture of patients’ care plans and what needs to be done for them, but also allows staff to work together seamlessly.
Infinity is customisable and can be adapted according to new and changing needs, making it a sustainable solution that is fit for future organisational changes. It can also be used for many different use cases including e.g. out of hours services, inpatient care, community and social care, ICS collaboration and coordination, portering, bed cleaning and more.
Smart foundations in practice
Infinity has been used to replace unsupported legacy database systems and handwritten notes at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, allowing staff to safely and efficiently coordinate their day-to-day workloads.
Somerset Foundation Trust has become one of the first trusts to reduce the use of bleeps (pagers) and paper to-do lists in its out of hours inpatient team with Infinity. Staff can log on and easily see the tasks they have been allocated, and in what location.
“Infinity is wonderful, it has been the best thing for our team… When I log in, I have instant access to patients’ details, including management plans, and I have a clear picture of what I need to do. Before, we just had handwritten notes in a book, and we had to look so much up. It took so much time, and it was easy to miss things.”
— Karan Dachtler
Senior Nurse
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
“I find using the Infinity system hugely beneficial in allocating tasks to doctors in a timely manner. Being able to add a task immediately to Infinity after receiving a call from the wards, and not needing to wait for a doctor to reply to my bleep makes the workload much more manageable.”
— Matthew Beebee
Out of Hours Coordinator
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
Success measure: safe practice
What the guidance says: Organisations across the ICS maintain standards for safe care, as set out by the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria for health and social care (DTAC). They routinely review system-wide security, sustainability and resilience.
Infinity Health publishes a Data Security and Protection Toolkit, is an ISO27001 certified company, and is meets the requirements of NHS Cyber Essentials. Infinity also meets clinical safety standards as set out by DTAC and DCB0129 and DCB0160, making it a safe and secure choice of digital partner.
Our platform is HL7 FHIR interoperable and will integrate with multiple digital suppliers partnered with NHS organisations, so information is always up-to-date.
Success measure: support people
What the guidance says: Your workforce is digitally literate and is able to work optimally with data and technology. Digital and data tools and systems are fit for purpose and support staff to do their jobs well. Systems and tools enable frictionless movement of staff across the ICS - allowing staff from different organisations to work flexibly and remotely where appropriate
Infinity was founded from within the NHS, and therefore is designed to tackle real and specific problems faced by staff. All Infinity users are taken through a comprehensive in-person and online training programme, have access to ongoing support and troubleshooting, and are asked for feedback which informs future training and development.
Infinity is updated quickly in real-time from the point of care, so staff across disciplines and organisations within an ICS have up-to-date information about patients and tasks at all times, wherever they are based. Having all the information in one place enables staff to have better informed conversations with patients about their diagnosis, investigations, treatment and management plan.
Supporting people in practice
Infinity’s task management platform is already being used by front line staff in several trusts, including Global Digital Exemplar Somerset Foundation Trust (SFT), London Northwest University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH), and Barts Health. Staff have given excellent feedback and both SFT and LNWH have expanded the use of Infinity as a result of positive impact.
“Using Infinity has improved our team’s communication – it’s a lot easier to keep in contact about tasks for the day. Things change all the time, so it’s great to be able to add tasks to the platform and know the clinical team will be able to see and act on it immediately from a visit, without having to call, email, or text them. As a team leader, it’s comforting to be able to see what my team are doing in real-time, and where they are, so I can offer support if needed.”
— Aoife Lenihan
Nurse Team Leader
Rapid Response Team
Success measure: improve care
What the guidance says: Your ICS embeds digital and data within their improvement capability to transform care pathways, reduce unwarranted variation and improve health and wellbeing. Digital solutions enhance services for patients and ensure that they get the right care when they need it and in the right place across the whole ICS.
Infinity supports safer care with real-time task lists and dashboards, ensuring nothing is missed, which supports a reduction in unwarranted variation.
Staff have real-time information about their patients and what needs to be done for them at the point of care. This ensures patients get the right care at the right time; less time is spent logging onto multiple systems or looking for colleagues for verbal updates, and more time can be spent on patient care.
Tasks can be allocated to named individuals or roles, so the right skillset is being used efficiently and the task is completed at the right time.
Improving care in practice
“Infinity is accessible from anywhere, which makes things easier and smoother. With our old system, we had to find a desktop computer and log in, often in the middle of seeing a patient, because we didn’t have access to the information we needed. We often had to rely on our memory, so it was easy to forget things. But now we can log in on our phone or laptop whilst we’re with a patient and see all the details.”
— Jignesh Patel
A&E Team Leader
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
Success measure: healthy populations
What the guidance says: Your ICS uses data to design and deliver improvements to population health and wellbeing, making best use of collective resources. Insights from data are used to improve outcomes and address health inequalities.
Infinity Health is committed to collaborating with NHS and other partners to support the digital and data agendas of ICSs. Our platform automatically logs a wealth of data that can be analysed to understand demand for services and the collective resource allocation and distribution required to meet it.
There is a full and clear digital log of activity for each staff member and patient, meaning that Infinity is auditable and there is no need to trawl through paper notes to find the relevant information.
Healthy populations in practice
At London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, Infinity has helped maximise the use of portering resources by its impact of reducing cancellations by over 80%, resulting in a sustained reduction of six minutes per porter request. This translates to a saving of more than 10,000 hours each year, equivalent to five full time members of staff.
Infinity has also been used by five NHS trusts to collect and analyse staff COVID-19 self-testing data. Leaders can easily dig into the data, for example breaking down positive test results by role, location, ethnicity, gender, and age group. This means they can identify whether outbreaks occur within or across segments of their staff, and can respond to them in near real-time.
