Client

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

Duration

18 Months

Scope 

To rapidly design and deliver improvements across multiple transformation workstreams. The organisation was facing significant financial challenges and sought support on improving ways of working, and patient pathways to ensure they continued to deliver quality patient care as well as making the savings required throughout the financial year.

Each programme of work needed to be established with a clear scope, defined roles and responsibilities, measures for success and delivery plan.

A governance framework was developed which created a daily, weekly, and monthly reporting rhythm. The governance framework ensured input from front line staff up to executive leadership. This in turn ensured clear visibility of all issues, clear communication and feedback loops, and minimised the risk of any unintended consequences from such a large-scale transformation programme.

Patient flow was a key priority within the programme. Effective collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders was essential to ensure patients were discharged safely from hospital to the most appropriate setting. Discharge rates were consistently improved through joint efforts on initiatives such as long length of stay reviews and escalation processes, developing a clear understanding of demand and capacity across specific out-of-hospital pathways and the challenges to delivery. Regular Multi-Agency Discharge Events were convened, and the utilisation of existing digital platforms to monitor delays and patient needs was improved. A new Surgical Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) service was launched to reduce admissions and enable the closure of core bed capacity.

Impact

•Reduction in average length of stay by 2 days

•Reduction in super stranded patients by 20%

•Removal of corridor care

•Closure of all 40 escalation beds and a 14 bedded short stay surgical unit