The problem

The theatre and anaesthetics financial management team needed to help improve the review and approval of high volumes of Medinet invoices, because valuable time better spent addressing patient-centred operational pressures was being consumed by invoice validation. Processing delays were impacting cashflow, better payment practice code (BPPC) target achievement, and the accuracy of reporting the theatres clinical service unit’s (CSU) financial position.

The challenge

How might we enable our operational colleagues to prioritise patient-centred pressures by optimising the Medinet invoice validation process, ensuring timely and accurate processing of invoices, and preventing a backlog of unpaid invoices?

The outputs 

The outputs from the innovation were:

• A daily management report which details the number of staff Medinet supplied by theatre, the expected cost and Medinet invoice number once raised.
• A working paper to calculate month end accruals for Medinet.
• Aged debtor reports that were monitored by Medinet
• At year end, all reports helped to inform any cross-year expenditure accruals that need to be entered.

The outcomes

The benefits resulting from this innovation were:

• Improved partnership working between the two organisations, as well as between finance and our theatre operational colleagues.
• Accurate invoices raised, authorised promptly and paid within the supplier’s terms of 14 days which helped accounts payable achieve its BPPC target.
• Greater accuracy in calculating monthly and cross-year expenditure accruals.
• Reduction in the need for Medinet to raise credit notes as any discrepancies are resolved within a week.

This innovation and the process we designed was also rolled out to other areas in the Trust where Medinet was in use, such as, endoscopy. The Medinet’s director of finance has also implemented this process in other Trusts and organisations.