Investment and Impact Fund – NHS England
Case Study:
Investment and Impact Fund – NHS England
Turning a Simple Spreadsheet into a £20,000 Income in One Week
Introduction
IIF, or Investment and Impact Fund, is a funding mechanism in the UK that provides financial incentives to general practices for improving their performance in various areas, such as immunizations, cancer screening, and chronic disease management. However, tracking and reporting on the progress and achievements of these targets can be a tedious and time-consuming task for practices, especially when working collaboratively in a Primary Care Network (PCN). This case study outlines how a group of practices in a PCN used a simple spreadsheet and a mini-app platform to develop an innovative solution that not only made tracking and reporting more efficient but also helped them identify missed opportunities and easy wins, resulting in a £20,000 income in one week.
The Problem
The practices in the PCN were struggling to keep up with the IIF targets due to various reasons, including the complexity of the funding mechanism, lack of clarity on what to do next after identifying gaps, and the burden of communicating and reporting the progress to PCN managers. This is the first year practices have had a high amount of incentivised indicators to achieve, with the potential for missed opportunities and underperformance. To address these challenges, the practices decided to develop a simple yet effective solution that would not only make tracking and reporting more efficient but also help them engage and motivate each other.
The Design
The practices used a mini-app platform called eManager by X-Genics to create a custom solution that would allow them to enter data quickly and generate automated dashboards that provided instant insights into missed opportunities and easy wins. The solution was designed to focus on forward planning rather than looking back, with a month-by-month record of achievements and missed targets. The solution was financially focused, highlighting the value of missed targets and identifying easy-to-reach targets. It automatically highlighted priorities and made it easy to understand and plan. Importantly, the solution was designed to engage practices by making every practice enter data and self-examine, resulting in better targeting of patients, focused meetings on group-wide achievements, and better collaboration across the network.
Achievements
The solution had a significant impact on the practices and the PCN, resulting in a £20,000 income in one week. The financially focused dashboard enabled the practices to differentiate profitable indicators from easy kills, resulting in better decision-making and a more targeted approach to achieving the IIF targets. The practices reported better engagement and collaboration, with all four practices working together in this and other areas, resulting in a joint Patient Participation Group (PPG) for better use of common resources. The solution enabled the practices to track progression over 12 months, plan and achieve goals without any last-minute rush, and identify coding errors. The practices reported that they achieved £20,000 across the PCN in the first two weeks of using the solution, and they understood how to work with IIF for the first time as a team.
Using a fully managed system and automated Dashboards, has allowed the team to focus on performance, never having to worry about updates to the requirements or the latest version of spreadsheets. The impact on the team is evident in a single comment by Dr Peter Brown the Clinical Director of Northwest Merton PCN said “I don’t know how other PCN’s are managing without this”.
Practice Managers reported feeling a sense of achievement and feeling valued as they were able to make more effective contributions to financial performance and clinical quality measures.
“So far the system has made a real impact on visualising targets and added value as well as holding practices accountable for their end of delivery.” Said Pinar Johnson, PCN Manager of Northwest Merton PCN
Conclusion
The IIF case study demonstrates how a simple app platform that generates intelligent Dashboards can be used to develop innovative solutions to address complex teamwork challenges in the healthcare system. The practices in the PCN were able to turn a tedious and time-consuming task into a financially profitable one, using a focused dashboard that not only made tracking and reporting more efficient but also helped them identify missed opportunities and easy wins, resulting in a £20,000 income in one week. The solution enabled the practices to engage and motivate each other, resulting in better collaboration and decision-making. The success of the solution can be attributed to the practices' focus on planning forward, financially focused design, and engagement of every practice in the network.
The system can be used solely by the PCN Manager to input already consolidated data, but involving and engaging member practices has the added benefits of self-responsibility; effective delegation; grass root improvements; and individual learning, not to mention that it makes the PCN Managers life that much easier.