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Reducing delays to discharging patients in Greater Manchester

A case study with Manchester City Council and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust .

This project aimed to establish a single mechanism for real-time collaboration between NHS and social care partners, so they could obtain the information needed to facilitate complex discharges.

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Background

A key element of Greater Manchester‘s devolved 'Taking Charge' strategy is to reduce delayed transfers of care (DToC), where patients are considered medically fit for discharge, but no care plan and/or social care assessments have taken place. Not only do these delays adversely affect patients’ health but, it costs Manchester University Foundation Trust (MFT) an estimated £20m per year.

One factor causing DToC is that social care practitioners do not have easy access to patient information needed to complete social care assessments. For example, patient information is often fragmented and siloed in paper case files and multiple IT sources. Collaboration is also generally done over the phone rather than a secure software application. The project aimed to create a single mechanism for health and social care practitioners in Greater Manchester to collaborate over patient discharges in real-time.

What the project involved

The project customised MFT’s current electronic patient record system 'Chameleon' to enable social care practitioners to access relevant patient information. All data required by discharge services was centralised into a 'custom list', which was continuously updated for all users to access. Funding was also available for project management and training.

10% reduction in delayed transfers of care can save £980,000 per year

Benefits of this real-time collaboration project

Clinical staff benefit from:

  • a single source of information about patients’ medical fitness to be discharged 
  • reduced the time staff spent calling and emailing social care staff, which could otherwise be spent providing patient care 
  • efficiencies in the way they interact with social care staff around DToC
  • more beds available at the hospital, improving patient flow 
  • reduced time spent looking after patients who should have been discharged 

Patients benefit from:

  • avoiding deterioration by the improved discharge procedure
  • returning home as soon as possible once safe discharge has been identified
  • reduced risk of infections and re-admittance

Social care staff benefit from:

  • reduced time spent chasing relevant information to conduct a care plan, which could be reinvested in providing patient care 
  • the "Predicted Date of Discharge" feature, assisting social care staff to triage patients 
  • access to an editable patient list, arranged by neighbourhood teams to indicate responsibility 

Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership benefit from:

  • reduced spending on DToC patients – 10% reduction can lead to savings of £980,000 per year  
  • DToC savings can be redistributed across the partnership 
  • an early success story around health and social care collaboration

Lessons learned so far

The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership learned that:

 

  • customising the current electronic patient record system, as opposed to creating a new product, meant it could be developed quickly and users were familiar with its use
  • stakeholder engagement has been a positive experience - questionnaires for trust and social services staff involved in the project have enabled them to feedback and suggest changes to further reduce DToC
  • this was the first time that Manchester City Council and MFT entered a joint governance structure - a system of circulated reports and verbal updates provided both parties with a clear understanding of progress
  • by commencing the information governance workstream early into the project they avoided it causing significant delays

Download the full case study

Last edited: 29 September 2022 4:23 pm