Redesigning the future of health and care with population analytics and decision intelligence
The past two years have been extraordinary for the NHS. Responding to the pandemic has brought many new challenges, demonstrated the best of the NHS, but also amplified the previous issues. During the pandemic, the Mid Cheshire NHS Foundation Trust leadership team saw an opportunity to think different and reimagine health and care to enable a more prosperous local population.
At the heart of the approach was the shift from focusing on services to understanding the population’s needs and delivering a better experience and outcome. Strasys took the leadership on a process of discovery and design fuelled by advanced analytics and decision-intelligence. The result is an innovative strategy now adopted as the PLACE roadmap.
It required courage and strong leadership to challenge the status quo with a backdrop of numerous national policies and reforms and operational pressures. James Sumner, Chief Executive of the Trust, shares his experience and lessons.
A strategic plan not based on achieving performance targets but on meeting the needs of the population
By putting people and patients at the heart, the Trust overcame the typical organisation and policy barriers that had prevented the delivery of truly integrated care for the communities it serves. James Sumner, Chief Executive of the Mid Cheshire Trust, describes the strategy development process and how it became the PLACE strategy with a strong commitment from partners across health and social care, with shared outcomes.
Using population health analytics to ‘connect the dots’ to reimagine services and improve decision-making
The current health and care challenges need new solutions and ideas. To move away from traditional siloed approaches, the Trust used advanced analytics and modelling not seen in the NHS before to reimagine its services. Through insight-led storytelling, the leadership team made sense of the current challenges and discovered the art of the possible. James Sumner talks about the experience and how it helped break down organisational barriers and innovate.
Fuelling system-wide decision-making through Decision Intelligence and greater empathy
There is no shortage of data in the NHS but very little insight. Consequently, it becomes difficult to engage systems around common beliefs and cut through organisational politics resulting in change inertia. So how do you enable leadership to use data, develop insights and make better decisions? This requires a multi-disciplinary approach bringing together various scientific disciplines and humanising data. James Sumner describes the Strasys difference.
“The population segmentation analytics is a game changer. It was the first of a number of real light bulb moments for the Board.”
The analytics work underpinning this strategy was recognised with an HSJ Best Healthcare Analytics Project award. For finance directors, the PLACE approach offers a route to resource reallocation that is clinically owned and population-justified rather than a top-down efficiency cut.
The approach also gave Cheshire and Merseyside ICS a replicable model for how provider trusts can lead the PLACE agenda with evidence, not just good intentions.
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