Covalent launches free guide to building effective NHS Trust Board Performance Dashboards

Covalent, market leader in the provision of corporate performance management software to the UK public sector, has launched a free "How To Guide" to building effective NHS Trust Board Dashboards. Covalent has over 160 public sector customers, with a growing focus on the NHS.

Board Dashboards are a hot topic, in widespread usage to help board members manage their ever growing fiduciary duties relating to oversight of quality of care and patient safety.

Dashboards summarise performance across all Trust operations, monitoring achievement against target for financial, clinical quality, patient safety, operational, employee and other data. They can be particularly effective in helping directors interpret large amounts of data whilst minimising information overload through the use of traffic-lighting and visually engaging displays.

We have watched with interest developments in the usage of dashboards for board reporting and in particular the gathering storm of quality and safety oversight requirements coming at Trust board directors. We have seen a wide range of different types of dashboards used, some quite good, many flawed and consistently demonstrating the same shortcomings.

As a result we undertook a comprehensive research exercise to examine what makes a good dashboard and to consolidate best practice on dashboard design.

This guide presents those findings and will benefit anyone looking to improve performance reporting to Trust Boards and is organised into three sections:

• Overview of market trends driving the need for better quality and safety reporting to Trust Board directors
• Why dashboards have emerged as a vital tool for top-performing Trusts
• The 7 Golden Rules for dashboard design, illustrated by practical examples

The free guide can be downloaded from www.covalentnhs.com.

About Covalent

Covalent delivers a suite of NHS Performance Management, Quality Improvement and Governance applications that help Trusts better manage decision making to achieve strategic goals... while ensuring operational excellence and regulatory standards compliance.

•By aligning performance objectives with organisational goals in planning methodologies such as Balanced Scorecards to achieve faster and more complete implementation of the strategic plan
•By consolidating supporting evidence for Care Quality Commission and other regulatory Self-Assessments
•By traffic-light monitoring of key Metrics to help Trusts better measure quality, clinical, operational and financial areas of performance
•By progress tracking progress of Action Plans against key milestones and major deadlines
•By assessing Risks in terms of Impact and Likelihood of occurrence and the management of subsequent Mitigation Plans
•By allowing you to easily manage public reporting of quality related information on your website