Increasing NHS organisational productivity and efficiency
Is your organisation struggling to reduce costs while maintaining or even improving the quality of services? The current economic climate means the focus is now on spending smarter, investing for the future and delivering results.
- Duration: 45 minutes
- Cost: FREE
- Where: Your PC
- Register and watch online now
Cutting the cost of running a healthcare organisation has become vital as the gap between the NHS’s income and the demand for its services has become evident. But just how do you set about making efficiency savings without affecting patient care or demoralising your staff - especially when savings of £20bn over three years are envisaged?
One part of the solution may be to look at some of the non-pay costs associated with employing staff and whether they can be reduced.
This HSJ webinar, in association with McKesson, will help you look at how you can implement some high impact changes to create a flexible, robust, world class workforce that will enable your organisation to deliver results and adapt to any environment. Improved ‘back office’ processes can help organisations reduce their costs while also running more efficiently and delivering the health services their communities need. The webinar will also focus on how organisations can shift their efforts from the mundane administrative tasks around staff employment, to more strategic areas such as recruiting the right staff and ensuring existing staff have the right skills for the future.
By freeing up staff to spend time on more productive areas, technology can make a major contribution to increasing productivity. Innovate, automate and streamline your business processes.
One quick and easy way to free up resources and costs is an electronic expenses system. Electronic systems for managing staff expenses can contribute to staff satisfaction through swift and hassle-free payment while improved monitoring and verification of expenditure will help organisations meet their financial targets and control costs.
Expert Panel
- Noel Plumridge, independent consultant and former NHS finance director
- Matt Searles, UK sales manager, McKesson
- Richard Coope, managing director, Point Progress
Facilitator
- Charlotte Santry, HSJ reporter
Who should watch
- chief executives from PCTs and trusts
- finance directors from PCTs and trusts
- HR professionals
- IT managers
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Readers' comments (3)
Barbara Allen | 18-Nov-2009 11:16 am
Back offices, alongside shared services are being pushed by the government at the moment. They are also big in the US. There has been no independent study done that provides any evidence that this does actually save money or improve service. The few publications that do exist are based upon projected savings. Much in the same way that IVR (the automated responses you get when you phone call centres) and CRM (customer relationship management) and IT workflow (work flow is hardwired into the service). These things may have led to a saving in one budget, but then led to costs being pushed into other budgets or became unknowable costs. For example customers walking away. Much of the back office shared services led to off-shoring and outsourcing to India. This also led to a huge decrease in satisfaction with services and decreased quality. My experience of IVR, CRM and back-office is BT in the UK and it all equates to an awful service experience.
Deming warned about instant pudding.
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Richard Pound | 19-Nov-2009 3:43 pm
I agree that the NHS needs to reduce costs whilst at the same time maintain or improve the quality of service. However, the back office solution suggested will not improve this on their own, and we need to first focus on the BEHAVIOURS of staff, patients and other stakeholders that will drive the benefits we desire. Fundamentally, it is people's behaviour that is causing the problems we face (in the NHS and in our organisations and society as a whole). No matter what systems we put in place, what re-organisations happens or what new rules, policies, procedures or regulations we enforce: unless we can influence people to behave differently and in a sustainable way (by looking at what motivates and enables them to behave in the way there are), we will not achieve the improvements sought.
We need to stop jumping to solutions that we hope will provide a quick fix, and focus more clearly on the BEHAVIOURS that will give us those results - and then work out how we can get people to enact those behaviours. It's a challenge, but it's that focus on a few key 'vital behaviours' that will deliver the benefits.
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Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 4:06 pm
Richard - do you have any behaviours in mind?
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