NHS Wakefield District invests in Business Intelligence

NHS Wakefield District has invested in a business intelligence (BI) solution from COA Solutions. Comprising of IBM, Cognos and COA Solutions' own software systems, it is one of NHS Wakefield District's biggest IT investments to date and will provide valuable insight into how the Primary Care Trust (PCT) is performing in relation to the health needs of its population.

As health in the Wakefield District is generally worse than other parts of England, this provides the PCT with considerable ongoing challenges. Using information from the business intelligence solution, NHS Wakefield District will be able to more effectively fulfil regulatory requirements. Ultimately, the solution will improve the services it delivers to its 321,200 strong population.

NHS Wakefield District intends to make the data from the business intelligence solution available to other commissioners in the area such as Practice Based Commissioning Groups, GP surgeries and dentists, empowering their stakeholders to make shared, informed decisions. The ultimate goal is to provide the entire health service as well as Wakefield Council with access to the business intelligence system. This will enable the PCT to strengthen partnerships with other local sector organisations to improve both the health education and the health and well-being of local people.

'With the country currently experiencing a recession it's even more important that we are providing best value for money whilst still improving the quality of the services we deliver to the Wakefield population,' said NHS Wakefield District's director of corporate services, Gill Galdins. 'We recognise that we need comprehensive, accurate and timely information if we are going to achieve a good standard of regulatory compliance and improve efficiency and service delivery.'

NHS Wakefield District's data is currently held in multiple systems and displayed using Excel, making it extremely time consuming to collate and difficult to compare. With the COA Solutions business intelligence system in place, the PCT will have more timely access to information from a range of data sources. This allows information to be analysed in real-time to understand the needs of the community. Unlike restrictive ‘out of the box' business intelligence systems, the flexibility of the COA Solutions system will allow NHS Wakefield District to produce customised reports on all aspects of its performance both now and in the future. It will also enable the PCT to adapt and respond quickly to new information requirements aligned with the strategic priorities for the district.

NHS Wakefield District's head of information Rachel Spilsbury, said the BI platform is 'an excellent example of best practice.'

'It's a false economy to use quick fix, standardised business intelligence systems in response to specific regulatory reporting requirements,' she continued. 'In contrast, the COA Solutions system can be configured to report on all aspects of our performance enabling us to fulfil both existing and future regulatory requirements. Importantly, by using this system, we will continue to have an accurate and holistic view of the underlying needs of the Wakefield population.'

In accordance with the NHS World Class Commissioning Strategy, NHS Wakefield District has to achieve good performance across eleven key deliverables, each of which is marked out of four, where level four is the best. NHS Wakefield District is confident that with the business intelligence system in place, it will be able to move quickly from level two to either level three or four in the majority of the competency levels.

'We will be using the business intelligence solution to highlight areas where we are currently underperforming. Staff will be able to access all types of information relating to childhood obesity, for example, and analyse and report on this information in detail to understand the underlying factors influencing health outcomes,' explains Spilsbury. 'With this information to hand, commissioners can best decide how to tackle the issue. They will also be able to compare the effectiveness of different courses of action so that the most effective approach can be identified and best practice can be adopted.'

Also key will be analysis of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances and emergency admissions so that NHS Wakefield District can implement measures to bring about reductions. Galdins explains, 'The COA Solutions system will be used to analyse accident and emergency attendances and hospital admissions with a view to determining trends and exploring actions we can take to reduce unnecessary admissions, thereby cutting costs. With the public sector focused on innovation and efficiency, working as cost effectively as possible is obviously a top priority.'