Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has published its annual plan for 2024/25, with a key priority to become “a more digitally-enabled and information-driven organisation”.
Looking firstly at the delivery of safe, high quality care, the trust highlights an overarching aim around “equitable clinical prioritisation, influenced by active use of data”; as part of this, a planned action is to improve access to population health data that can be “meaningfully used” for service improvement.
Additionally, the plan notes an aim to encourage research, innovation and community-driven work, stating that processes for reviewing developments in this space will be embedded through its Digital Innovation Forum.
On how Birmingham Community Healthcare will become more digitally-enabled and information-driven, the trust states that its approach “aims to deliver affordable, efficient, sustainable, and timely services” to support patient care and organisational transformation. The main aims in this area are that digital will support teams in increasing efficiency, automating processes and releasing clinical time; and that people will have access to and use data to support care. Planned actions set out include ensuring all teams have access to an EPR; reducing the number of forms within the EPR; deploying EPMA in all inpatient settings; rationalisation of systems; improved infrastructure and connectivity; and establishing a single source of data.
Other actions will see the trust work to improve capability through new technology, integration and automation; improve resilience and availability of information services; and utilise data and tools for delivery of information and decision-making, “including modelling and planning of capacity and demand”.
With regards to health inequalities, the trust emphasises work around using data to understand equity of service provision, along with driving action to improve access and experience for all.
The plan can be found in full here.
In other news from the region, we previously looked at Birmingham and Solihull ICS’s 10-year strategy which highlights the key role of data in tackling inequalities, identifying opportunities for intervention, and enhancing understanding of areas of shared priority.
HTN also reported on a study recently launched in Birmingham and Solihull which aims to improve the care of people living with psychosis and multimorbidities, particularly for marginalised populations, by co-designing resources based on patient experiences and utilising “novel methods of engagement” including use of digital means.
