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United Kingdom
ROTHERHAM, UNITED KINGDOM: The Rotherham Foundation Trust has set in motion plans to expand its Strata PathWays™ implementation across all remaining Community Services under 2 set tranches. First, falls prevention, tissue viability, pressure relieving equipment, dietetics, domiciliary physio, CHD, community consultants, fast response and TB nursing will be operationalised by the end of this quarter. Next, diabetes services, podiatry & podiatric surgery, MSK, phlebotomy, audiology, minor operations, ear care, wheelchair services, smoking cessation, LT conditions, ANP’s Care Home liaison & children’s services will go live during the second quarter for 2012.
Andrew Irvine, Chief of Community commented, “In order to truly achieve system wide patient flow best practice, we must embed local service access into a rule based (but flexible) system to assure the delivery of the right services, at the most appropriate and timely access point across the continuum. This must be established patient by patient, in a simple and straightforward manor to enable clinicians actionable options to mobilise a definitive action plan for the patient at the point of referral. These actionable next steps must be fully supported as best practice within the region and able to be replicated in a consistent fashion across Rotherham’s entire health & social care economy ”.
Furthering this strategic positioning of streamlining process across the care continuum, Rotherham is set to pilot GP based referrals for urgent care interventions to the Community Nursing / District Nursing Teams. A select GP Practice Group will prototype this new process to refine GP referral requirements and ultimately increase access of urgent community intervention as an entry point to the health system in Rotherham. Patients along with their GP’s will be able to tap into rapid intervention in advance of the need to present to A&E.
Carole Lavalle, Head of Case Management / North Locality Manager stated,” After having heard of the gains made across the trust to date, we were approached by the GP surgery team with a view to test functionality of Strata eReferrals from primary to urgent community intervention. We worked with the GP Surgery Team to fine tune the process specific to Primary Care requirements and are going live next week! The GP team is very tech savvy and there is no question the new process will be quicker, easier and totally transparent. Carole added, “Not only are we enabling GP access to the patient flow system; we are currently cross-stitching all referral flows so that specialties like (for example) Breathing Space (COPD) can be a referral destination but also a referral source to ensure proper turnover within the program as patients convalesce”.
This expansion is expected to help continue to operationally link Health & Social Care and GP & Community Services across the borough enabling system wide performance and throughput to be optimized ongoing.
Clint Schick, Managing Director for Strata Health comments, “ The project has moved from ‘prototype’ to an integral part of TRFT’s three year strategic plan. Whilst we are thrilled at the outcomes to date across the deployed care streams, the team realizes this is a journey requiring a continuous path of evolution. As patients needs change, local bespoke service delivery models and offerings will need to keep step. Evolving population demographics will make certain of this and so the framework of cross stitching all referral options to best practice whether local or nationally guided, will mean we must keep focused on keeping the system as dynamic as the patient population it serves. We are all definitely up for the challenge and the good news is it gets easier to adapt to continuous operational changes versus large systemic system wide change”.
About The Rotherham Foundation Trust:
The Rotherham Foundation Trust (TRFT) provides a wide range of health services to the people of Rotherham (population approximately 252,000) and to an increasing number of patients from further a field. They were awarded Foundation Trust status in 2005, which means they are an independent body and free from government control and are regulated by Monitor (the independent regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts).
About Strata Health Ltd:
Strata Health leverages technology to achieve dramatic patient flow improvement within health systems. Our clients say they’ve entrusted us with the job of creating patient flow solutions that achieve real and dramatic benefits for patients, their families and the world’s devoted front line caregivers. Strata Health LTD is a UK based business and a wholly owned subsidiary of Strata Health Solutions, Inc. It is comprised of professionals with empathy for those who need care and intense respect for those who devote themselves to caring for others.