The finalists in the Health Tech Awards 2022 in the category of ‘excellence in project management’ are as follows:
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Overview: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) implemented a digital project to revolutionise the way patients manage their appointments, with bespoke project methodology supporting the team to improve patient experience and equality.
Why? Over the past five years, the number of outpatient appointments and complexity of patient care and treatment at LTHT has changed, accelerating the need for outpatient transformation.
What happened? The aim of the project was to digitise appointment interactions for all outpatient departments across seven hospitals, focusing on digital appointment communication with patients by providing patients with appropriate, timely information about their appointments on a channel accessible to them. There were eight well-defined success measures with target outcomes and stakeholders could easily follow planned benefits, aligned goals, baseline metrics and goals. Measures detailed include reduction in print/postage, reallocation of staff time, reduced DNA rates, improved clinic utilisation and improving accessible services for all patients. The project was delivered in-scope and on-time using six project workstreams: technical build and integration, business process configuration and transformation, communication and patient engagement, testing and data quality, training and service management.
Looking ahead. The successful roll-out of this project has enabled the trust’s transformational strategy to take a step forward and supports their sustainability goals. It is expected to drive the trust’s productivity and add non-cash savings in excess of £2 million.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and Imprivata
Overview: Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (SWBHNT) implemented Imprivata OneSign SSO for 3000 users and 4000 devices in just four weeks.
Why? As part of its digital transformation programme, the trust was implementing a new EPR system. During pre go-live testing, slow log-in times were identified as a potential problem.
What happened? The project team at SWBHNT needed to find a single sign-on (SSO) solution that could authenticate users against active directory in under 10 seconds, and allow them to log into the new EPR application with a remote deployment option. Imprivata’s OneSign solution as selected as it met all criteria and it was implemented in just four weeks. Deployment and user adoption were two critical phases of the project management and the team utilised both automated and in-person software roll-out processes. Three teams of IT engineers completed software installations and at the end of the day, experiences and learnings were shared so that the work could become faster. Confident users could self-register and the team ran pop-up sessions at the same time as the EPR training to support others. In-reach sessions were also held wherein Business Relationship Managers visited wards to help hard-to-reach staff, often working night shifts.
Looking ahead. The trust report that the project has resulted in improved security and data governance, along with improved patient outcomes and productivity.
Better and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Overview: Through effective collaboration, leadership and a data-driven implementation approach, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) became the first mental health trust to successfully deploy the Better Meds ePMA solution.
Why? SLaM previously relied on paper-based prescribing processes; deployment of the Better solution led to safer medication practices, patient experience and efficiency.
What happened? Following thorough procurement and controlled, data-led implementation, SLaM became the first mental health trust to deploy the Better Meds ePMA solution in April 2022. The trust completed extensive research and planning and included all relevant stakeholders in the project from the start to ensure buy-in. Comprehensive preparations for implementation were undertaken with staff invited to take part in workshops to ensure that they had a voice in shaping the solution. A programme was co-created with Better and CGI, with Better reconfiguring the ePMA solution so that it was specifically tailored for use in a mental health setting. The pre go-live phase saw the trust undertake a ‘dress rehearsal’ to generate feedback and identify issues, enabling a data-driven assessment. The first ward went live in April 2022, with the trust capturing key learnings and making changes to tackle challenges.
Looking ahead. SLaM has gone on to roll out the ePMA solution across three wards, collecting data with each to support future decision-making and streamlining as they go. They plan to have all 50 wards online by the end of 2022.
