The Pride and Joy software - the whole system operational and analysis tool

02-Jan-2017

Improving patient flow across the whole system - simultaneously within the parts, between the links and across the whole

In the latter chapters of Pride and Joy is reference to the software used to achieve the primary objective of operations: to improve patient flow. With improved flow patients move through their care pathway more quickly with much less or no delay; significant reductions in lengths of stay are achieved and hidden, ‘free’ capacity is released. With improved flow and more capacity, access targets can be more reliably and consistently achieved and more patients on the waiting list can be treated within the current resource envelope. A reduction in length of stay means patients spend less time in hospital and receive higher quality care, with clinical staff able to focus on the delivery of care rather than the management of queues and delay. With the release of hidden capacity also comes strategic choice.

The Pride and Joy software connects the patient’s journey across the health system – from admission to an Emergency department, through the assessment units, the wards/units and discharge or ongoing care in other parts of the system such as the community and mental health environments. 

The Pride and Joy software does two things simultaneously. The front-facing, user-friendly Pride and Joy operational tool is the ‘robust and trustworthy mechanism’ described in the book and has been built using leading technology. It shows each member of staff the tasks they need to carry out and, most importantly, the order in which they need to do them for the benefit of all patients and the affordability of care for all. It highlights to staff early in a patient’s journey when they are the resource most likely to cause the patient to be delayed so that corrective actions can be taken during the patient’s journey rather than being a costly delay at the end of the journey. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) time-based buffer management principles have been further developed and adapted by Alex Knight to the healthcare environment and built into the software. This front-facing element of the software provides the individual and system-wide answer for all staff, 24/7, to the critical patient flow question:

The second part of the software is Analytocs, a TOC-based cause-and-effect analysis tool.  Also designed and developed by Alex Knight and the QFI software team, Analytocs is in some ways the most powerful element of the software. Sitting behind the front-facing Pride and Joy tool, Analytocs cuts through the seeming complexity of the whole health system and enables live cause-and-effect analysis to be carried out to identify and validate the size of disruption or delay being caused by a particular part of the system and/or behaviour of a group/resource, and from this verify the size of outcome that will be achieved across the system through a specific change in operational practice. Because the front-facing operational tool follows patients’ journeys across the whole system, analysis can be carried out at a whole-system level. This analysis provides healthcare leadership with the answer to the question:

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