The problem

The Trust’s costing team needed to improve the level of engagement with PLICS in order to support the waste reduction programme, improve the quality of information available for decision making and maximise the use of this uniquely powerful data source. Otherwise, their PLICS data would be underutilised and not achieve its full potential.

The challenge

• How might we provide assurance on the quality and accuracy of our PLICS information so that users have confidence to use it to make informed decisions?
• How might we enhance its content to broaden its potential uses in areas not previously associated with PLICS?
• How might we improve its presentation so that users can utilise it in a way that provides actionable insight to their services?
• How might we improve the communication around its uses so that a wider audience becomes aware of its benefits?

The outputs

Our outputs from a growth in engagement include:

• a diversity of users, ‘repeat customers’ as well as those referred to us or recommended to us by their peers
• increasing approaches from both clinical and operational colleagues to support them in making use of PLICS and our skills of accessing and transforming data
• an expanding range of opportunity seeking tools born from increasing engagement. These have led us to the worlds of population health management and trust wide quality improvement (QI) initiatives, all of which have proved integral to improving the services we provide to patients and their experience
• data and team members cited as contributors to increasing numbers of published clinical studies.

The outcomes

The tangible and intangible outcomes of our work include:

• a growth in the recognition in the ‘art of the possible’ from challenges presented by those seeking out and engaging with PLICS
• clinicians becoming more interested in how they could use the data. For instance, in validating the cost benefits of alternative patient pathways. The demands for more data and insight always lead to our next innovation
• streamlined production methods to become more efficient to cope with the growing numbers of colleagues approaching us. The way we work has been transformative to the team and its skills, and the demand for the information we produce is continuing to increase making it a sustainable change
• the creation of a ‘data lake’. This continually updated repository of clinical and financial information allows a quick turnaround of requests which allows more time to focus on answering the questions rather than collating data
• enhanced reputation and visibility both in the Trust and nationally, with requests to contribute to articles for the HFMA, FACE and FFF
• reaching a new clinical audience that bring with them new challenges that drive continuous learning and innovation
• the entire team feeling empowered and realising they can play an important role in using their skills in a ‘back office’ function to improve patient care.