Data Management & Integration Solutions Archives - Page 4 of 8

The importance of an exceptional patient level costing solution

Posted on: 24 April 2023

Costing teams within NHS healthcare organisations can play a vital role in identifying inefficiencies and cost improvements that will enhance services. This means they deserve an exceptional Patient Level Costing Solution (PLICS) that will not just handle the NCC submission, but will also give them the tools to flourish in several other capacities from making meaningful decisions to developing internal reports that will consistently validate these decisions and benefit both healthcare professionals and patients daily.

But what makes an exceptional costing system? And why exactly is it so important? That’s what we’ll discuss in this blog so you can make an informed choice on what you should be getting out of your PLICS solution.

What capabilities should you look for in an exceptional patient level costing solution?

If you want your PLICS system to be considered exceptional, these are the capabilities that you should be looking for:

Accessibility & ease of use that encourages self-sufficiency…

Ease of use is key to assessing how good a costing system is – your costing system should help your team be more efficient not hold them back. Your costing team should be able to run calculations quickly so that they can maximise their time analysing the data rather than exhausting their efforts trying get the data in a comprehensible form.

…no matter what level of technical skill you have in the team

Another sure sign that you have an outstanding costing system is that it is an end-to-end solution that can be easily accessed by any team member with any technical skill level. This helps the process of migration and implementation through to data dissemination be as seamless as possible. A solution that’s customised and flexible in its design will encourage all team members to use it regularly to continuously meet NHS needs and challenges as they arise.

Simple & successful National Cost Collection (NCC) submissions

As well as being compliant to meet your annual costing return and meeting the National Cost Collections and PLICS submission requirements, an optimal costing system will also include the tools and supplier support to make the often-onerous submission process as simple as possible. The value of an experienced supplier supporting you through the process cannot be overstated, as this means you can be confident in your team submitting on time and without errors no matter its size.

Insights & analytics that are accurate & reliable

Another feature of an exceptional costing system is that it is capable of easy integration with your organisation’s wider analytics platform or strategy. Your costing system should act as a reputable source for sharing data widely, both across your organisation and, most importantly, with ICS Partners. The more secure and trustworthy the analytics you can integrate, the easier it will be for your costing team to collaborate with members of the ICS on treatment cost analysis and the impact of recovery plans.

Low cost, high return on investment for your organisation

Do you find your team spending excessively on a solution that causes frustrations or complications? An outstanding costing solution will be of reasonable cost to your organisation and simplify your experience, resulting in a high return on investment and low total cost of ownership (TCO).

Why the quality of your costing system matters

An exceptional costing system creates a reduction in unwarranted variations and will help your team orchestrate strategic service transformation through insightful analysis of the costing data. It will also encourage an information-driven culture and increased data literacy not just within the costing team, but across the organisation. This will help NHS organisations secure healthy financial positions and deliver optimal outcomes.

Adopting and implementing a state-of-the-art costing solution like Synergy is not as challenging as you may think. The long-term benefits of doing so far outweigh the short-term feelings of uncertainty so is something you should consider when thinking about a potential upgrade to your existing system.

If you’d like to find out more about how a new and improved costing system could help your organisation, please contact our expert, Susan Brooks. or take a look at Synergy, our PLICS System and what our customers have to say about it.

How to find the right IT outsourcing partner

Posted on: 17 March 2023

Looking to work with an IT outsourcing provider? Finding the right partner to deliver your requirements can be a tricky and time-consuming process. But, done right, a successful outsourcing relationship can bring long-term strategic benefits to your business. We asked our experts to share their top tips on how to find the right IT outsourcing partner.

Evaluate capabilities

Having the right expertise is the obvious and most essential criterion, so defining your requirements and expectations is the best way to start your search.

When it comes to narrowing down your vendor choices, it’s important to consider the maturity of an organisation as well as technical capabilities. “The risk of working with a small, specialised provider is that they may struggle to keep a handle on your project,” warns Brian Robertson, Resource Manager at CACI. Inversely, a larger organisation may have the expertise, but not the personal approach you’re looking for in a partner. “Always look for a provider that demonstrates a desire to get to the root of your business’s challenges and can outline potential solutions,” Brian advises.

Find evidence of experience

Typically, working with an outsourcing provider that has accumulated experience over many years is a safe bet; however, Daniel Oosthuizen, Senior Vice President of CACI Network Services, recommends ensuring that your prospective outsourcing provider has experience that is relevant to your business, “When you bring in an outsourcing partner, you want them to hit the ground running, not spending weeks and months onboarding them into your world.” Daniel adds, “This becomes more apparent if you work in a regulated industry, such as banking or financial services, where it’s essential that your provider can guarantee compliance with regulatory obligations as well as your internal policies.”

So, how can you trust a provider has the experience you’re looking for? Of course the provider’s website, case studies, and testimonials are a good place to start, but Daniel recommends interrogating a vendor’s credentials directly, “A successful outsourcing relationship hinges on trust, so it’s important to get a sense of a vendor’s credibility early on. For example, can they demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your sector? Can they share any details about whom they currently partner with? And can they confidently talk you through projects they’ve completed that are similar to yours?”

Consider cultural compatibility

“When it comes to building a strong, strategic and successful outsourcing partnership, there’s no greater foundation than mutual respect and understanding,” says Brian. Evaluating a potential provider’s approach and attitudes against your business’s culture and core values is another critical step in your vetting process. As Daniel says, “If you share the same values, it will be much easier to implement a seamless relationship between your business and your outsourcing partner, making day-to-day management, communication and even conflict resolution more effective and efficient”.

While checking a company’s website can give you some insight into your prospective provider’s values, it’s also worth finding out how long they’ve held partnerships with other clients, as that can indicate whether they can maintain partnerships for the long-term.

However, Daniel says, “The best way to test if a provider has partnership potential is to go and meet them. Get a feel for the team atmosphere, how they approach conversations about your challenges, and how their values translate in their outsourcing relationships.” Brian adds, “Your vision and values are what drive your business forward, so it’s essential that these components are aligned with your outsourcing provider to gain maximum value from the relationship.”

Assess process and tools

Once you’ve determined a potential outsourcing provider’s level of experience and expertise, it’s important to gain an understanding of how they will design and deliver a solution to meet your business’s needs. “It’s always worth investigating what tech and tools an outsourcing provider has at their disposal and whether they are limited by manufacturer agreements. For example, at CACI, our vendor-agnostic approach means we’re not tied to a particular manufacturer, giving us the flexibility to find the right solution to meet our clients’ needs,” Daniel explains

Speaking of flexibility, determining the agility of your potential outsourcing provider’s approach should play a role in your selection process. “There’s always potential for things to change, particularly when delivering a transformation project over several years,” says Brian, adding “that’s why it’s so important to find a partner that can easily scale their solutions up or down, ensuring that you’ve always got the support you need to succeed.”

Determine quality standards

Determining the quality of a new outsourcing partner’s work before you’ve worked with them can be difficult, but there are some clues that can indicate whether a vendor’s quality standards are in line with your expectations, says Daniel, “A good outsourcing partner will be committed to adding value at every step of your project, so get details on their method and frequency of capturing feedback, whether the goals they set are realistic and achievable, and how they manage resource allocation on projects.”

Brian also recommends quizzing outsourcing providers about their recruitment and hiring process to ensure that you’ll be gaining access to reliable and skilled experts, “It’s easy for an outsourcing provider to say they have the best people, so it’s important to probe a little deeper. How experienced are their experts? How are they ensuring their talent is keeping up to date? What is their process for vetting new candidates? All these questions will help to gain an insight into an outsourcing provider’s quality bar – and whether it’s up to your standard.”

Assess value for money

For most IT leaders, cost is one of the most decisive factors when engaging any service; however,
when looking for an IT outsourcing partner, it’s critical to consider more than just a provider’s pricing model. “Contractual comprehensiveness and flexibility should always be taken into account,” says, Brian. “A contract that is vague can result in ‘scope creep’ and unexpected costs, while a rigid contract can tie businesses into a partnership that’s not adding value.” He adds, “Ultimately, it comes down to attitude, a good outsourcing provider can quickly become a great business partner when they go the extra mile.”

Daniel agrees and advises that IT leaders take a holistic view when weighing up potential outsourcing partners, “Look beyond your initial project, or resource requirements and consider where your business is heading and whether your shortlisted providers can bring in the skills and services you need. After all, a truly successful outsourcing partnership is one that can be relied on for the long haul.”

Looking for an outsourcing partner to help with your network operations? Contact our expert team today.

DataHub: High Quality Data Unlocked

Elevating Customer Experience with High-Quality Data: The Power of DataHub

Posted on: 7 February 2023

“Garbage In, Garbage Out” (GIGO) is a well-known adage that holds true across various industries, including sports nutrition, education, wine making, data science, and, most notably, customer experience.

Poor-quality data can undermine confidence in reports and impede the implementation of personalisation and other data-driven initiatives.

At CACI, we are dedicated to harnessing the power of data to deliver remarkable results.

High-quality customer data is critical to this mission. Data that is accurate, consistent, and free from duplicates will enable us to optimise customer loyalty, personalisation, AI/ML, conversion optimization, and regulatory compliance.

To ensure that our data is of the highest quality, we adhere to the following criteria:

Demographically rich: The data provides insights into the customer’s identity and lifestyle.
Standardized: The data is consistent across systems, allowing for quick and efficient processing.
Veracity: The data adheres to your standards for validity and consistency.
Free of duplicates: The data is resolved at the individual level to avoid double counting and over-communication.
Consistent identifier: The customer is identified consistently, regardless of the source.
Predictive: The data contains variables that enable modelling and prediction of customer interests and needs.
Compliant: The data adheres to relevant consent and permissions standards.
Understood within the organization: The data is accessible and understandable to stakeholders.

To address these challenges, CACI has developed DataHub, a solution that solves data quality issues faced by brands. DataHub was built on the experience of working with leading brands in retail, publishing, financial services, gaming, and utilities.

It processes and enriches data in real-time using a scale on demand cloud native architecture, engineered to work with your data, wherever it is stored. For CACI clients already using Acorn, Ocean, and Fresco, DataHub provides dynamic, real-time enrichment of data, enabling real-time personalization and optimization of the digital or call center experience.

To learn more about DataHub and its flexible integration options for all use cases and enterprise architecture needs, download our short brochure or reach out to us for more information.

Let’s work towards a future where data quality is no longer a concern.

Why NHS costing systems can’t stand still

Posted on: 18 November 2022

The NHS landscape is constantly evolving – it’s the responsibility of trusted solution partners to keep pace with NHS organisations and contribute expert data knowledge to help them on their journey

Everyone’s talking about finance collaboration in the new Integrated Care System (ICS) structure, but it’s not easy for anyone to make headway in this unfamiliar landscape. It’s not as if the decks have been cleared to make time and space to understand and address the opportunity: NHS leaders and finance teams are still grappling with everyday pressures and priorities within their own Trust. ICS is another challenge to add, albeit one that offers excellent opportunities to improve patient care and experiences.

Up to now, costing data has been used by NHS Trusts for national cost collection (NCC) and internal service line reporting. Solutions like CACI’s Synergy 4 help Trusts to make this happen in the most efficient and integrated way possible and to gain greater value from their data for service design and improvement. But now, there’s a new challenge level. How can Trusts also share and embrace costing data from other Trusts within their ICS?

The rewards of understanding and analysing patient pathways across organisations

In principle, it’s clear that a holistic approach to analysing patient pathways – spanning acute, mental health, ambulance and social care organisations and community settings – has the power to greatly improve patient outcomes and experiences as well as delivering better value and efficiency to ease the burden on NHS care teams. But the practical processes and channels for sharing data and insight are far from clear.

CACI’s NHS engagement team has been working closely with our NHS clients to understand the complex considerations around sharing data between Trusts in a secure way that produces reliable and meaningful information that can help develop patient-centric services and make the most of NHS resources.

Trusts are engaging with a range of new data challenges for ICS

Information Governance (IG) for shared data is a key concern for NHS finance teams. Data must be anonymised, in order to protect patient confidentiality, but Trusts must be able to match patient identifiers to understand the end-to-end pathway through multiple touchpoints and organisations.

Finance teams are also keen to understand more about the quality of data that could be shared by other Trusts. Data formats may be an issue: there are multiple systems and data sources in use, even within individual Trusts, which can make it hard to match data and adopt a holistic approach. With clinical decisions and budget allocation potentially riding on the analysis, it’s critically important that pooled data is accurate, de-duplicated and in comparable formats, to avoid inaccuracies. Reporting on insight from shared data can produce unfamiliar results in the broader ICS context: for NHS leaders to trust the integrity of the data and analysis, these results need to be clearly presented and explained.

These are uncharted waters for NHS Trusts, for the new ICS organisations and for data solution partners like CACI. It’s not surprising that most efforts to launch costing data-sharing projects have so far been tentative. We’ve talked to finance managers who have shared data to explore the opportunity – generally they’ve done this in manual and fragmented ways, such as emailing manually created data files. This is clearly not a scalable approach for time-poor NHS finance teams, even if the attendant data protection and security issues could be resolved.

Operational finance teams can see the potential, but many are worried about IG, concerned about undermining their own Trust’s financial priorities within the ICS and don’t have the time or the mandate to focus on unpacking the issues. It’s already creating frustration. Some NHS leaders have a management accountancy background: they don’t yet have the data literacy training or experience to champion or direct a completely new costing data-sharing approach with confidence. This is a challenge we’ve also recognised: CACI’s Healthcare Insight Success Cycle (HISC) includes data literacy training modules which can help increase knowledge and confidence.

Collaboration with solution partners can enable ICS collaboration

How can NHS Trusts and ICS organisations break down these barriers and access the resources they need to unlock the potential of data-sharing? Partners like CACI can help to shoulder some of the load by ensuring that technology and data solutions are continually evolved and adapted to handle the emerging opportunities and challenges. Driven by the feedback and hands-on experience we gain from our NHS colleagues, we’re working on our Synergy proposition to develop the data-sharing, analytics and IG capabilities that will support the emerging ICS data-sharing requirement.

We know that ICS organisations are at different stages of their thinking about Trusts. They also have diverse levels of capability, resources and experience in producing Trust-level service insight from costing data. Everyone has a different starting point for their new ICS data-sharing journey.

How does your Trust’s approach and experience to date match up with our current understanding of the ICS landscape? At CACI, we’re highly aware that priorities, issues and opportunities are constantly evolving within the NHS. We’re rising to the challenge of delivering a costing proposition that’s built for the complex demands of today and tomorrow, supporting better outcomes for patients, better decision information for clinicians and better use of resources for the NHS. We want to support Trust finance and analytics teams by sharing our NHS data knowledge to help build data literacy among NHS leaders, so they can champion ICS from a position of understanding.

That’s why we are working alongside our NHS colleagues, engaging with their current challenges and offering data strategy, process and capability insight to help them move forward on the journey, as we evolve our Synergy proposition.

Please join the conversation through our user groups and round tables or get in touch directly to share your priorities and issues and pose any questions that we could help you answer through our NHS data experience and expertise. Contact consultant Susan Brooks in CACI’s NHS team.

Integrated care systems – is your Trust maximising opportunities?

Posted on: 21 September 2022

Since 2018, the NHS has seen Trusts building closer relationships with local councils and other important strategic partners such as the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

The 2021 NHS Long Term Plan cemented an integrated care system (ICS) that would build on lessons learned and invest in keeping people healthy, while setting future social care priorities.

The introduction of ICS throughout the NHS, along with the government’s new Health and Care Bill, brings health care under one umbrella, and highlights the importance of data sharing to enable joined up support across the NHS, local councils, and other partners.

ICS is helping change attitudes to data sharing and how data can be used to improve service provision. This presents a huge opportunity for NHS organisations to improve services and accelerate elective care activity. It enables better use of data by consolidating, managing and sharing it more efficiently and easily, resulting in better care through more easily pinpointing where problems or hurdles exist.

While Trusts will have a wealth of organisation and patient data, bringing it together to produce meaningful insight that can drive decision making and improvements, and access additional funding, is crucial.

Joining up health services

The Health and Care Bill changes how the NHS is structured and puts ICS on a statutory footing, enabling partnerships that better join up health and care service, improve the community’s health, and reduce health inequalities. Benchmarking across Trusts becomes possible, enabling more effective and consistent patient outcomes.

Each ICS is led by an Integrated Care Board (ICB), which will have responsibility for NHS functions and budgets across the ICS. The system sees 42 new ICBs replace Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), with a change from 106 CCG geographic areas to 42 ICBs.

Currently, much of the work with data in the NHS focusses on delivering upon statutory requirements. But moving forward, data will also become a tool for planning and measuring, informing decision making for improvements to clinical practise and leveraging data to improve the cost of care and the patient experience.

Sharing information across Trusts enables benchmarking of services, while patient pathways remain the priority at all touchpoints. Technology can be used to leverage knowledge of the environment and constraints and provide a proactive view of activity. This will allow Trusts to have a much clearer view of the entire patient journey, and will be the start of the changing future of healthcare.

It will help ICS to look ahead at long-term population heath needs based on demographic data, and better understand future problems – enabling a next level of planning that may not previously have been considered.

The current state of integrated care systems

The NHS Confederation, which supports and speaks for the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has carried out a review of ICS progress in 2021/22.

In the first of what will be annual reports into the evolution of ICS, it highlights what is working well and where it feels improvements are needed. These include:

ICS leaders may not have sufficient time and space to deliver the radical changes needed.
ICSs should make decisions at the most local level possible and be empowered to define what metrics they will be assessed on based on local priorities.
One of the biggest strengths of ICS so far has been improving joint working between partner organisations. Around 90% of system leaders believe they have been able to effectively improve joint working.
System leaders are committed to the principle of subsidiarity and 90% say this principle already applies to their system.
Another strength of ICS has been local workforces. ICS leaders feel they are making significant contributions to mitigate workforce pressures and improve working culture, with nearly 80% confident to deliver a ‘one workforce’ approach by July 2022.
More support is needed to help systems contribute to local social and economic development.
There is uncertainty about how the experiences and insights of leading primary care services at neighbourhood level inform system-level planning and strategy.
The biggest obstacle to further progress is national workforce shortages. The NHS Confederation is seeking amendments to the health and care bill to strengthen the duties of the Secretary of State for workforce planning, and has asked the government to develop and publish a health and care workforce strategy as a priority.

Taking the next steps forward

Data insight is crucial to help Trusts improve patient outcomes and drive cost savings. But finding the best approach to accessing the right funding and realising your digital strategy presents its own challenges.

CACI’s NHS services portfolio demonstrates our ability to support data projects at any stage of the data lifecycle, helping Trusts determine local priorities, accelerate timelines, maximise staff resources, improve joint working, and plan strategically for the future. And we combine all this with our wide experience of healthcare customers.

Data can become the building blocks of your solutions, showing you where services are at capacity, how to redesign them to avoid bottlenecks, and how to meet challenges and maximise opportunities.

Plan a call with one of our NHS experts today and take the first step towards optimising your organisation’s data provision.

Read our latest blog ‘Challenges facing NHS Trusts – and how to tackle them’.

And for more expert insight, download our essential whitepaper – Elective Care, how NHS changes are bringing opportunities for Trusts and patient care.

Challenges facing NHS Trusts – and how to tackle them

Posted on: 1 September 2022

Delivering better patient outcomes and value, while meeting targets and anticipating future needs, can be a challenge for NHS teams. There is constant pressure to do more with less, and with a high demand for service, quality is under intense scrutiny.

Even before the pandemic, waiting lists for elective treatment were growing. But by the end of 2021, 6.07 million patients were on waiting lists – the largest number since records began. As of September 2021, there were between 7.6 million and 9.1 million missing referrals of patients for elective care, and between 240,000 and 740,000 missing urgent referrals for suspected cancer.

“People will face serious health consequences as a result of delays in treatment, with some dying earlier than they otherwise would, and many living with pain or discomfort for longer than they otherwise would,” stated a March 2022 House of Commons report.

Tackling elective care challenges

The government expects the NHS to deliver around 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 than it was before the pandemic and has allocated £13.9bn in additional funding to tackle the elective backlog.

NHS Trusts are now exploring how they can access support to meet their targets, improve the patient experience and bring down waiting times. Digitisation is being seen by many as the silver bullet that will help solve their problems.

Over the past 20 years, elective care performance has been measured primarily through wait time targets, but changes to how the NHS monitors performance has seen the advent of new activity-based targets. The pandemic enabled a level of digital transformation that might otherwise have taken several years, and Trusts are looking to capitalise on this to deliver on these activity-based outcomes.

The Elective Care Recovery Fund is a £1bn pot of government money helping the NHS get back up to speed, and to aid different healthcare systems in working closer and more collaboratively.

Funding is awarded based on performance (i.e. increases in activity such as appointments or procedures). In order to utilise the funding, Trusts need to understand where there are opportunities to increase activity, make changes to create these increases, and be able to evidence them.

Data analytics can enable them to do this through forecasting, hypothesis testing and real-time analysis of wait times and patient journeys. Any activity above 95% of 2019/20 levels is reimbursed at 120% of tariff.

Digitisation of NHS services

Remote appointments are one key element of the patient journey where savings can be made. NHS England aims for up to a third of face-to-face outpatient appointments to be avoided by 2024 – saving £1.1bn and 30 million hospital visits.

In Norwich, a virtual ward launched in 2021 has saved nearly 2,000 bed days. The ‘ward’ enables patients to receive remote care from their own homes, with up to 20 patients a day being treated. Vitals such as temperature, blood pressure and oxygen are monitored via a strap around their arm and staff carry out virtual rounds through daily phone or video calls.

More than 80% of integrated care systems (ICS) now have a digitally-supported virtual ward, and these innovative forms of patient care are demonstrating how digital technology and data systems can enable Trusts to release capacity and deliver more efficient services.

Helping Trusts invest and utilise funding

Finding a different way through the pathways and exploring where the bottlenecks are and where there is capacity in the systems, is another crucial step forward, as is access to funding.

In April 2022, a new NHS payments system was introduced that enables an agreed local plan to be put in place between ICS members, targeting volume and case mix. A provider can earn a higher tariff for activity that exceeds the levels in the plan and for scoring highly on their CQUIN indicators.

Data insight is crucial to help NHS organisations plan, operate and continually optimise resources, services, and staffing – ensuring better theatre utilisation, staff rostering, waiting list reduction, capacity planning and operational management.

Advanced data analytics also enables NHS organisations to access the right available funding to help with a holistic recovery. Optimising data enables Trusts to explore opportunities, evidence these, and show changes being made – helping Trusts plug gaps and improve the patient outcome.

Next steps for Trusts

To meet the challenges currently facing the NHS, Trusts should be considering how to augment and optimise their data capabilities. A key step is to access and consolidate data from a variety of sources to inform deep and actionable insight about patients, services, and demand.

NHS Trusts will all be at different stages of their digital journey, but any additional funding they can optimise will be crucial. To do so they will need to understand where there are opportunities to increase activity, how to make changes to create these increases, and be able to evidence them.

CACI’s solution can help Trusts get the best outcome from the new NHS payment system and additional funding, and deliver the outcomes you need. We’re proud of our long-standing relationships with many NHS organisations across all care settings. We have hands-on experience of the pressures and opportunities facing your NHS organisation and the need for trustworthy information to support transformation and sustainability. Plan a call with one of our NHS experts today and take the first step towards optimising your organisation’s data provision. Visit our website.

And for more expert insight, download our most recent whitepaper – Elective Care, how NHS changes are bringing opportunities for Trusts and patient care.

The difference between reporting and insight

Posted on: 17 August 2022

Data is no use to NHS organisations without the expertise and tools to make it actionable

Data has become more and more significant in all industries and settings. The NHS is no exception. With a huge amount of patient, service and performance data at its disposal, there should be a wealth of insight available to help shape patient care and develop the best services in every community.

But there’s a very important caveat. Everyone knows that raw data doesn’t provide actionable information. That’s why it’s generally issued in the form of reports. But what do the reports tell you?

Reporting on data is not the same as generating meaningful and transformative insight from it.

It’s common for NHS organisations to produce reports that list statistics and objects without the context or perspective that could give them meaning as a basis for decisions. These reports can tell us what has happened and provide headline figures for costs, volumes and timeframes, but they don’t reveal insight.

Drawing insight from data means looking at it through a new lens. It could mean evaluating how past performance could influence future behaviours and decisions. It could mean modelling multiple hypothetical scenarios to decide the best approach from several options.

Data reporting is a valid exercise when you’re monitoring performance against fixed objectives. But it’s generally a historical, static activity. The data insight that NHS organisations need is about planning for the future and adjusting programmes in-flight to reflect the latest information and evolving patient needs. It’s about scenario modelling. It’s about bringing together different datasets, to gain more and more detailed and specific understanding of the causes of outcomes and what influences them. This kind of data insight is truly transformative because it allows NHS organisations to continually scrutinise, optimise and innovate in their services and care.

The impact of true insight on NHS services

Sarah Culkin, Interim Head of the Analytics Unit at NHSX, and Sukhmeet Panesar, Deputy Director within NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Data, Analysis and Intelligence Service describe the impact of data insight: “Knowledge is power. In healthcare, it is often life-saving. The NHS generates a huge amount of data which can be analysed and used to drive improvements in care and how services are run. Ultimately, data analysis results in improved patient outcomes and experience, as well as optimal use of NHS resources.”

Trusts and NHS service providers know that data is valuable. Many have already invested in data solutions and tools designed to store and analyse information. But not all are generating powerful and potentially life-saving insight. Digital insight for healthcare is a constantly evolving field, with new tools and technologies emerging to extract more relevant information. It can be hard to keep pace with the range of data resources on offer and to know how to prioritise system development and investment.

Acquiring and acting on insight demands data literacy in teams

Sarah Culkin and Sukhmeet Panesar highlight another key issue that affects many NHS organisations in their quest to use data to improve services: “In general, the NHS is failing to make the most of its data because there are not enough people with the right analytical skills to make sense of the information being collected.”

Data insight and analytics is a fast-evolving field. Without training, mentoring and support from specialists who understand the NHS environment as well as the potential of data, NHS managers and analysts cannot make informed decisions and harness the data they have to best effect. Education and skills are key – both for general data literacy in NHS clinical, management, operations and finance teams, and for analytics and technology in the data science teams who support them.

With all the data you collect, are you making the most of it to support crucial trust or service decisions and to deliver responsive, patient-centric care that meets real-time needs?

If you’d like to find out more about CACI’s Data Maturity Assessment service, or our data and analytics training, please get in touch. It’s all part of our HISC (Healthcare Insight Success Cycle) data optimisation approach for NHS organisations. Find out more by downloading our brochure Spearheading your data journey to improve patient outcomes.

Is knowledge and skills a barriers to transformative insight for your NHS organisation? Working with a specialist NHS data transformation partner could help you achieve best value from your data and budgets.

Find out how CACI’s healthcare team can provide advice on developing and maintaining your technology and offer staff training for data literacy and skills, so you can sustain your data journey from within. For further information, visit or website or get in touch with our NHS client team.

Managing patient data to guide you in the new ICS landscape

Posted on: 1 August 2022

How NHS organisations can prepare to access and contribute to a powerful pool of insight that will help them meet local needs better than ever before

When the new ICS framework rolls out, predicted for summer 2022, it should enable healthcare providers and bodies across the NHS to collaborate better than ever before, with a shared goal of providing improved patient care across the board. By moving away from fragmentation and competition, NHS services should be able to consider patient needs and pathways holistically and offer the best locally targeted overall care from a range of specialisms and organisations in a more coordinated and efficient way.

We have a real opportunity with the formation of the ICSs to change how we use data to better coordinate care and re-design our service based on the needs of our citizens… It’s a really exciting time to work in the NHS.
Ayub Bhayat, Director of insight and data platform at NHS England and NHS Improvement

NHS leaders and healthcare teams are excited about the opportunity to smash silos and break through frustrating organisational barriers to work more effectively together in this new, collaborative culture. But they’ll need the right information and tools for shared decision-making. That means bringing together data that was formerly held separately and unleashing its full potential as part of a comprehensive system of healthcare insight.

What should NHS organisations do to make sure they’re playing their part and will have access to the data and analytics they need to deliver excellent outcomes as part of their ICS?

Trusts and healthcare bodies will need to be certain they can share data securely and effectively. They’ll need systems that can bring together disparate data in actionable formats, so it can be compared and analysed at patient and pathway level. They’ll need reporting tools and dashboards that reveal insight to underpin operational and investment decisions, as well as to track the success of initiatives. They’ll need to continuously augment data, so planning and collaboration keep pace with real-time community and service needs.

Every ICS will have its own priorities, reflecting what the local community needs in terms of NHS care across the board. Different data and analysis will be needed to plan the best collaborative service provision in every area.

The overall vision is exciting, but to achieve it, organisations must identify practical steps to move from where they are today with their own data to the collaborative ICS data ecosystem. There’s an opportunity to exploit new and proven technology that manages and harnesses data to produce advanced, relevant and detailed insight.

We recommend a systematic approach to assessing where your organisation currently stands and how you can evolve your data strategy to achieve the best outcomes in an ICS. In CACI’s digital healthcare knowledge model HISC (Healthcare Insight Success Cycle), we’ve developed Discovery tools and processes that help NHS organisations do exactly that:

Describe and assess your current data strategy, systems and approach
Define your future data direction and destination as part of an ICS
Review your data security, storage and infrastructure
Build a strategy and roadmap for data insight that will improve clinical and operational delivery and performance in the ICS framework
Build a business case to connect investment in insight with tangible outcomes

CEO of NHS Confederation Matthew Taylor said in March 2022 that the use of high quality, real-time population health data will help “to shift from a system that responds to demand to a system that genuinely responds to need”, and that the NHS’ implementation of Integrated Care Systems (ICS) has the potential to “help create that enabling environment” needed to leverage data effectively.

Ruth Holland, deputy chief information officer at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, went even further: “ICS’ will stand and fall on their data capability in ten years’ time. I would sternly encourage digital and data leaders to look at the costings you are putting into plans [for staff and skills] that will support the ambition.”

CACI’s specialist healthcare technology team has the experience and knowledge to support your organisation with planning and delivering an ICS data transformation programme, including training and skills transfer for your staff.

If you’d like to find out more about CACI’s HISC model for optimising NHS healthcare data, download our brochure Spearheading your data journey to improve patient outcomes. It describes in more detail how you can take action to activate data insight to reshape health and social care in an ICS.

To find out more visit our website or speak to an NHS data consultant about the results we’ve helped other organisations achieve, please get in touch with our NHS client team.