Northern Lincolnshire and Goole (NLaG) NHS Foundation Trust has received £200,000 in funding for a new, integrated clinical e-scheduling system to support staff.
It’s hoped the NHS England and Improvement-funded addition to the trust, called the Malinko system, will save time for staff and lead to more patient-facing hours.
The integrated scheduling system uses staff rostering and skills to match patients with the most appropriate person in the ‘right place at the right time’. It also aims to reduce the amount of scheduling administration required, as well as the amount of cancellations and missed visits.
According to the trust, other benefits for staff include potentially fewer absences and less staff working over their contracted hours.
The Malinko system will help to provide ‘accurate information about allocated work’, to support teams manage unplanned work, and improve the visibility of capacity and demand.
Helen Turner, Head of Nursing for the community and therapy division, said: “These types of systems make our allocation of patient visits much easier and enables more time with our patients. This will be really positive to nurses and other healthcare staff because it provides accurate information about allocated work, reduces the time nurses spend allocating visits, supports agile working and increases visibility of capacity and demand.
“The scheduling system will optimise and coordinate visits for all community staff and will reduce the amount of time senior nursing staff spend allocating visits. It will increase productivity, efficiency and patient-facing time.
“The division will have visibility of capacity and demand on a daily basis that is real time, allowing for confident re-allocation of visits and unplanned activity. Linking the scheduling system with electronic rostering will enable measurement of utilisation, productivity and efficiency.”
As part of HTN’s Health Tech Trends Series 2021, we also recently took a closer look at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole’s refreshed digital strategy for 2021-2024, which included goals around modernising infrastructure, integration and interoperability. Read more, in our article here, about the trust’s proposed strategies and see how the new scheduling system may fit in.
