psINSIGHTS

The AI debate: Stop comparing the bot to the perfect human decision maker We congratulate William Warr and colleagues at the University of Oxford for a nuanced and well researched blog on the potential benefits of AI to our healthcare system*.  The blog rightly distinguishes between mundane and repetitive clinical tasks – where automation is

‘No ‘rules’, no service transformation  All service transformation is based on consistently delivering – at scale – better patient outcomes and experience at lower cost*. Yet the transformation of the health service, without employing software to assist, is progressively becoming more and more difficult. In the current healthcare climate we face new problems, that of

Summary – We strip down the business case to its bare bones; looking purely at the impact on the bottom line for referral management.  For the full article: Input this code: Request Whitepaper Questions? Contact Us: Contact

Our algorithms can automate over 95% of admin tasks and reduce time spent on clinical triage.  While for most this makes us a technology company, we think about ourselves first and foremost as a healthcare organisation. Managing patient referrals is a critical part of any healthcare organisation / system to ensure that patients receive the

Summary – psHEALTH has surveyed Clinical Commissioning Groups in England on their use of referral management.  Our aim was to understand overall take-up of referral management services, the rationale for the introduction of such services, and associated financial savings for CCGs.  This whitepaper sets out a summary of our findings. For the full article: Input this

Summary – Ingolv Urnes, psKINETIC Director and Co-Founder, has contributed to MWD Advisor’s whitepaper, An IT Strategy Brief for the New Era of Intelligent Automation. The paper examines the ways that automation technologies can be applied to businesses, and highlights the steps and considerations that those who are thinking of applying it to their own

Sign up to a free service review with psHEALTH We often speak of the significance that clinical variation can have on patient outcomes. For example, that one GP or Consultant may consistently make decisions at odds with their colleagues. By contrast, variation in technology is talked about in more hushed tones. Which is surprising, as

Purchasing a solution to solve your problems today makes perfect sense. As consumers, we do it every day – whether it’s paracetamol to cure a headache or filling the car with petrol to get to work. But what if your chosen solution has a 3-year contract?  Will paracetamol cure all your ailments during that period?

psHEALTH Founder & Director, Ingolv Urnes, discusses the journey of ART. Enabling NHS organisations to move away from manual data entry to intelligent automation and machine learning capabilities.

In 2017, outpatients were attended by 64 million people, costing the NHS more than £8bn. Transformation of outpatient services has long been on the NHS agenda, albeit largely on a conceptual level – owing in part to more pressing demands elsewhere. For the NHS England Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, the time to address outpatients is

We accept the value of its aims but suggest that effectively deployed referral systems -whether they be management or support services – that overcome fundamental management challenges, naturally address service issues. Referral Management or Referral Support? ‘Referral Management Centres, which are primarily designed to reduce GP total referral numbers to hospital should not be introduced’

In August, Pulse reported that NHS England had written to CCGs in May, asking them to implement weekly clinical peer review of all referrals from general practice by September 2017.  Financial rewards would be given to regional teams introducing schemes to enable CCGs to deliver a slower growth in referrals. Despite more than half of

Accountable Care Systems In June, Simon Stevens announced the creation of eight new Accountable Care Systems (ACS), which will have a combined potential to control around £450m of funding over the next four years.  The intention appears to be to transform STPs into ACS– and ultimately some into Accountable Care Organisations (ACO). So what exactly

‘Vetting hospital referrals can help patients’ (Ann Robinson, the Guardian). GP referrals may be rejected, whether sent direct to a hospital or via a referral management service. This process is frustrating for GP and patient alike. Conscientious GPs will be quick to respond to a request for more information. Yet, in some cases a request

This Spring, the financial penalties for providers who fail to reach the target of 92% of patients being seen within 18 weeks of referral for consultant-led treatment (RTT) seems, temporarily, to have been removed. This appears to have been a recognition by the Government that for financial and demographic reasons, for many trusts the target

Connected Care Partnership (CCP), which includes Modality Partnership and Intelligent Commissioning Federation (ICOF), is a multispecialty community provider vanguard in Birmingham and Sandwell. CCP are developing new ways of working together that will help improve the overall health and wellbeing of local people. Central to the new ways of working will be the introduction of

Advanced Referral & Triage (ART) combines smart rules and workflow to eliminate manual processing. In doing so we enable clinicians and administrators to spend their time where they are most effective and influential – making clinical decisions and speaking with patients. The result? A more streamlined service, improving patient experience and clinical outcomes. Schedule a

Most trusts operate some form of Single Point of Access (SPA). They fulfil the essential function of reviewing, structuring and assigning incoming referrals. The effective management of this process has always had far reaching implications for the overall efficiency of a trust.  A successful SPA can save a consultant precious time or, if ineffective, can

psHEALTH have been awarded a place on the latest Crown Commercial Service framework, G-Cloud 9. The G –Cloud framework allows UK public sector organisations to identify and procure cloud based services. psHEALTH’s Advanced Referral & Triage product, launched earlier this year, will be available on the framework alongside our Robotic Process Automation-as-a-Service and professional services

No more email monitoring or copying and pasting of information It’s 2017: robots are preparing and cooking delicious meals and commercial flights to the moon are just around the corner. Yet the automation of many important everyday tasks have been largely overlooked. In trusts, community service hubs and, many other healthcare provider settings, staff continue

What does ‘digital transformation’ mean for the delivery of healthcare and rehab services?  Achieving better outcomes for patients or service recipients and, reducing the costs of service delivery, are the Holy Grail.  In this blog we look at key trends and how Case Management and Care Coordination software is changing. Everyone Online: You need a

psHEALTH is excited to announce the release of our latest referral management software: ART or Advanced Referral & Triage. ART can help you run a referral management centre or single-point of access, by enabling more effective pathway control, better data collection and ultimately better outcomes at a lower cost. With ART we have consolidated years of

Collectively, the Sustainability and Transformation Plans highlight the prevalence of unwarranted variation in the NHS today.  Many of the plans reference the negative effect of this on patient outcomes, and the overall cost to the NHS – estimated at £4.5bn in England. But are we missing something? The Atlas of Variation has revealed the variation

A recent publication by the BMJ, following a successful Freedom of Information (FoI) request, reveals the considerable use of referral management schemes by CCGs. Rightly, the publication has generated an important discourse on how CCGs, and other organisations, commission value. Some of the key points revealed by the FoI request: 72 out of the 184

CCGs are being forced to manage demand for services in a more proactive way.  Hardly a week goes by without a CCG announcing restrictions on procedures available to patients.  Most recently three West Midlands CCGs changed the eligibility threshold for hip and knee replacements, expecting to save £2 million per year by reducing activity volume

‘psHEALTH Promotion Night – Better than the Oscars!’ Our Monthly Team meeting – which always includes a bit of fun & games – was extra special last Thursday as it was Promotion Night.  A bit like the Oscars, people dressed up.  Ingolv donned his old tuxedo and Jason took out his tight cocktail dress and

I’ve been fortunate to spend time with a variety of healthcare professionals. During this time, I feel I’ve gained a valuable insight into the inner workings of a number of NHS providers. One of the first things I realised is that despite offering the same or similar services, providers often differ in their organisational setup

Last week the King’s Fund published a report exploring demand for hospital services. The report indicates that over the last 13 years overall referral numbers have risen by 62% – an average of 3% per year. Referrals from GPs specifically have increased from 2.4 million in Q1 2003 to 3.6 million in Q1 2016/17, an

Whichever healthcare service your organisation delivers, staff costs are likely to be your greatest expense.  Typically followed by equipment and room charges.  Increasing staff utilisation by just 5% (say from 65% to 70%) can actually lift your operating margin by as much as 2.5 %-points.  That is a lot – a typical healthcare services organisation

In this webinar Dr Mark Davies (Res Consortium) & Ingolv Urnes (psHEALTH) discuss the challenge of managing demand in the NHS. Mark and Ingolv consider the value of a number of initiatives and provide recommendations on how best to adopt them.

Watch: Commissioners, Prime Contractors, Providers and GPs benefit from psHEALTH’s referral management software

Demand Management Round Table, with psHEALTH and Res Consortium. December 6 at 4:00pm, register for this free webinar here. However you look at it, demand for the NHS is not going away. Hospitals are treating more patients than ever before. Waiting lists are pushing the boundaries of what can be reasonably accepted. And winter is

Whilst we love all technology here at psHEALTH, it’s the real-world application of technology to improve healthcare and efficiency that we are really excited about.  In this short blog I want to set out for clinicians, administrators and other non-technical people how our referral management solution can automatically process email attachments and efax documents. It

My treasured notebookpsHEALTH is a pretty unique place to work.  Our focus is the success of our customers and the success of our people.  On the latter, I am obsessed by the idea that our people should be learning and developing at a pace most people would think impossible! As keen learners, we consult scientific

On the 22nd of November psHEALTH will be hosting a free forum on referral management. The event will provide an excellent opportunity for colleagues and peers involved in referral management operations to share their experiences, common challenges and ideas of best practice. Confirmed attendees so far include representatives from CCGs, CSUs and a number of

Birmingham and Solihull’s Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), which was published yesterday, seeks to address growing demand through the development of community-based care. The 80-page document provides an overview of the challenges facing the footprint, and the strategic objectives designed to address them. Challenges Sub-optimal system wide focus on use of resources (due to non-clinical

psHEALTH, a leader in automated referral management software, is delighted to announce that Jason Sims has joined the executive team as Head of Product Management.  Jason joins from Telstra Health, the Australian telecom giant and owner of Dr Foster and a number of innovate software businesses.  He has held a number of senior roles in

Mr Adler, chief executive of University Hospitals Leicester Trust, has accused providers in the South East of poaching patients from its congenital heart disease department. His view is that other providers have been able to offer the service for ‘nothing’, or at a heavily subsidised rate. With the trust receiving fewer referrals the department is

Advice & Guidance offers a platform for re-establishing the relationship between primary and secondary care, while improving capacity to manage demand across the NHS.  “Direct communication by GPs with hospitals has been in slow decline for years; gone are the days where a GP could call a Consultant and ask for advice; email is now

Earlier this week our Partnership manager, Josh Murray, attended the Arden and GEM CSU market engagement event for an oral dental referral management service. Below is a summary of the tender, and some observations. The Contract Arden and GEM CSU on behalf of NHS England Midlands & East (the “East”) are seeking to procure a Referral

It is perceived that GPs dislike referral management, in reality over 75% of GPs view it as beneficial. GPs and referral management, a phrase that doesn’t always prompt positive connotations, but evidence suggests that majority of GPs view it as beneficial. GPs don’t like referral management. At least that’s what I’m often led to believe.

How improving referral quality enables better demand management    The NHS faces a myriad of issues today. Referral rates are increasing, hospitals are at capacity, and patient waiting times have been pushed to the extremity (to name but a few). At the heart of this is the need to better manage demand. In a King’s Fund report published

In May, NEW Devon CCG, implemented a pilot designed to decrease secondary care referrals and enable shorter waiting times for priority referrals. The scheme has already led to nearly a third of urology referrals being returned to practice, as reported by Pulse. Under the scheme consultants will review referrals and determine whether they are appropriate

In a controversial move St Helens CCG is considering a suspension of all non-urgent referrals over the winter period. The plan, which would require any decision not to refer to be agreed by the patient and the GP, has been proposed to reduce elective demand and to help bridge the CCG’s funding gap. The view

Unwarranted variation remains one the greatest challenges for NHS leaders, but it also represents one of the biggest saving opportunities. It is therefore no surprise that it is the source of considerable debate. HSJ recently compiled an online guide, to showcase case studies of work being done to tackle variation and to highlight views of NHS

The NHS Five Year Forward View and New Models of Care dominated proceedings at this year’s Health+Care, reminiscent of the show twelve months ago. One year ago, however, the key focus of the show was about enhancing patient choice: how do we as commissioners or providers ensure patients can access care where they want and need it? While patient

In an HSJ article published last week, Samantha Jones, director of New Care Models Programme, discussed the value of prevention to the new care model vanguards. ‘Prevention’ in some cases simply means preventing an unnecessary admission to hospital, while in others it refers to the proactive monitoring of the whole health population, where the purpose

We’re excited to announce that from the start of June Nicola Skilling will be joining as our new Head of Account Management. Nicola brings with her a wealth of clinical experience and knowledge. Having first trained a Physiotherapist, Nicola spent several years in the position of Clinical Governance Manager for a large case management company,

psHEALTH’s tender timeline illustrates the growth in CCG use of referral management over the last few years. It is well documented that CCG use of referral management is growing, but in the main reports include only aggregate data and ignore the specific criteria they were commissioned for. Our timeline includes details of the tenders as

In April, the HSJ published results from a survey completed by CCG Chairs and Accountable Officers. It illustrated a decline in financial confidence, but also revealed several key steps to make savings. Respondents rated on a 10 point scale how confident they were of their CCG staying within budget for the next year. Of the

On Friday Milton Keynes CCG released a prior information notice to alert interested parties that they are planning to commence a procurement in the upcoming months for  for a Referral Management Service (RMS). Interested providers must satisfy the following criteria as a minimum in order to be considered as a provider to run this service:

Next month NHS leaders are expected to submit their Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs), demonstrating how local services will evolve and become more sustainable over the next five years. To support local systems with planning, NHS England has produced a document of guidance, setting out a list of national challenges for STPs. The document states

In this video Dr Peter Devlin, Dr Helen Curr & Development and Liaison Manager Antony Clark of Here (previously BICS) discuss the benefits of referral management, drawing on their own experience of operating a successful referral management centre. The Here team also discuss their ongoing partnership with psHEALTH and the benefits of the referral management solution

This week the HSJ published a barometer survey, indicating the favoured contracting routes for clinical commissioning leaders. Among those considered most popular were Accountable Care Systems (ACS) and alliance contracts, with 58% and 55% of commissioners respectively saying they expect to adopt this approach in the next 12-18 months. Fewer leaders, albeit still 26%, thought

As reported by The Economist, Greater Manchester will soon become the first region in the UK to receive full control of its health spending, as part of an extension of devolved powers. In a somewhat experimental move, a newly established body of stakeholders will take control of Manchester’s £6 billion health and social care budget.

The NHS England incentive scheme for CCGs, known as the Quality Premium (QP), will introduce several new measures in 2016/17. It offers rewards to CCGs for improvements in the quality of services they commission and for associated improvements in health outcomes and reduction of health inequalities. We at psHEALTH were pleased to see the ongoing

As reported by the HSJ, Barking, Havering and Redbridge (BHR) University Trust had over 1,000 patients waiting more than a year for elective treatment at the start of February. The figure recorded by BHR exceeded the national average, although it is not the only Trust to come under scrutiny. In data released by NHS England,

In this report, The Nuffield Trust sets out the possibilities for transforming healthcare offered by digital technologies. The report offers a valuable insight about how to grasp possibilities and benefits from those furthest along their digital journey. Read the hull report here.

Since their inception in 2012 CCGs have had to contend with growing financial restrictions. In their quest to deliver better value for money CCGs have identified Procedures of Limited Value (POLCV) as an area for review. POLCV which have traditionally included complimentary or alternative treatments, aesthetic treatments, or treatments without NICE guidance of cost-effectiveness, are

So, you are looking for a new job or maybe your first job – what is important to you?

Iain Fifer is discusses Referral Management and Software with Ingolv Urnes, Director & Co-Founder of psHEALTH

Wiltshire CCG’s accountable officer and clinical chair have written a letter to local GPs (obtained and published online by Dr Phil Hammond) explaining that the body’s financial situation is “dire”:  “We have notified NHS England that we will miss our financial target by £4.8m in 2015/16 and on current planning assumptions will have a funding

Read a summary of the CrossCity tender document

Our ambition is clear:  We want to achieve a 90% reduction in admin/triage costs and facilitate better, less costly pathway decisions for CCGs, prime contractors and providers.  At psHEALTH we are on an exciting automation journey with our Referral Management/Single-Point-of-Access software solutions. How far have we come? Our triage engine can automatically kick off the

As the NHS struggles to make £22 billion of efficiency savings by 2020, the magazine Pulse has identified nine CCGs across England and Wales that are financially rewarding GP practices who are able to reduce referrals to certain services. Such services include scans, tests and consultant appointments including, in some areas, for cancer patients. The

Is your organisation struggling to manage referrals?  Whether you are tasked with managing outpatient activity for a CCG or a prime contractor/accountable care organisation, or you are looking to better manage incoming referrals as a provider, our research indicates that you are likely to face one of the three big referral management challenges: 1) Rear-view

The role of CCGs in helping deliver the massive NHS efficiency savings required in the next 18 to 24 months is being questioned. The biggest challenge is really to find material cashable savings in such a short time period. A recent HSJ Leader (September 23 2015) identifies referral management as an important measure CCGs should

The HSJ (3rd September 2015) has found that restrictions on some healthcare services are being considered by a third of CCGs amid tightening financial pressures.  Of 188 CCGs that responded to freedom of information requests, 34 reported they had introduced or approved restrictions and 33 said they were considering changes or that their plans were

The delays and technical problems associated with the launch in June of the new e-Referral Service are well known. Do these threaten to derail the project? Our view is ‘no’. ERS is a cornerstone of the NHS Paperless by 2018 strategy. The HSCIC is currently working hard to iron out bugs and the system is

The financial pressures facing the NHS are forcing all CCGs to review spend and implement policies and systems to strictly control costs.  One area where cost control has received little scrutiny is Consultant-to-Consultant referrals (“C2C referrals”). Based on our discussions with commissioners, it is striking how hard it is for CCGs to control these referrals

Amanda Phillips of the Circle Partnership describes the successful deployment of psMOBILE to track outcomes for Circle’s large new Bedford MSK contract. Working closely together the team was able to deploy tablets in the field and in clinics and integrate with Circle’s data warehouse in less then four weeks.

This year’s Health+Care Show at the Excel centre was an excellent opportunity for the psHEALTH team to engage with NHS commissioners and providers.  In this blog I set out some general observations and some specific feedback on Referral Management. Despite the enormous challenges ahead, there was still a mix of relief and excitement in the

“Our philosophy is ‘Serious about health, passionate about care’ so best quality, best practice and best outcomes has to permeate everything we do. psHEALTH has been a wonderful company to work with, helping us shape and deliver a compelling and relevant solution for our corporate health business. The psHEALTH solution gives us full visibility across clinics, enabling us to deliver an excellent service as well as great analytics to feed more value back to our clients,” says Alaana Woods, Head of B2B and HealthFirst, BMI Healthcare.

Better pathway control, lower cost, improved patient experience Click for brochure Click for Whitepaper: The Future of Referral Management How do you rein in the seemingly ‘unstoppable’ growth in secondary care referrals; ensure referrals are made to the correct secondary care consultant or most vitally, find a better out-of-hospital care solution for patients?  How do

Are you interested in automating referral management? Are you looking to implement a mobile care solution? Come and visit our stand N50 to discuss how we can help you or to view a demonstration.

According to the HSJ (3 June 2015), a clinical commissioning group will introduce clinical thresholds for surgery and significantly restrict access to services to cope with its ‘financially distressed position’.  North East Essex CCG will bring in thresholds for non-urgent elective surgery on the basis of whether patients smoke or are overweight. Smokers will be

It’s difficult to read the papers or watch news reports without seeing one reference or another about the substantial pressures facing the NHS now and in the future.  One I saw this week about Devon CCG¹ provides just a single example for a single county.  Devon’s end of year financial figures revealed a deficit of

According to the HSJ, Jeremy Hunt recently praised the benefits of peer review to improve NHS standards, saying it is a better method than top-down targets.  He says the NHS needs to “empower the process of peer review” to improve standards.  Referral Management can be a valuable tool to help collect data and peer review

What does it mean for the NHS? Five takes on the election outcome Here is the HJS’s take on the impact of a Conservative Government on the NHS. 1. Simon Stevens’ forward view vision is cemented as the NHS’s top priority.  He has the support of the Government. 2. Service change: Pressing on with big

What is the future for referral management centres?  In this article, we argue that (i) the demand for referral management will accelerate as CCGs are forced to prioritise ‘where to spend the money’ and (ii) that technology and automation is the only way to deliver low-cost, fair and consistent referral management services. Initially the focus

Care of the Frail & Elderly is often the most expensive and least effective.  Despite differences in healthcare systems, this is a problem across the western world.  According to the Economist, ChenMed, located in Florida, seems to have some of the ingredients for success:  an integrated, ultra patient-centric approach inspired by ‘know your customer’, rigorous

psHEALTH’s mobile solution – Mobizio –  has been selected as a Little British Battler by TechMarketView. The companies that are chosen – innovative SMEs that are punching above their weight – get a chance to present their company to the TechMarketView analyst team, discuss their strategy and receive constructive feedback. Each LBB also gets a write-up in UKHotViews and

One can detect a certain urgency within the NHS to get on with the implementation of key pillars in Simon Stevens ‘Five Year Forward View’. Much rests on the 29 selected Vanguard sites to demonstrate success and show how new care models deliver better outcomes at lower cost. Central to the Forward View is the

Summary – Our National Health Service faces unprecedented demand for services and associated financial challenges in the coming years. In this whitepaper we focus on the seemingly unstoppable growth in secondary care referrals to hospitals. How can these referrals be proactively managed to deliver better care and reduce, or at least contain, the pressure on

Planning to move from Paper to Smartphones & Tablets in 2015? By removing paper you can drive productivity and compliance.  In this 15 minute webinar video recording, we show how psMOBILE can deliver all your paper forms and workflow to a mobile app or the web portal. psMOBILE Video Introduction » Video Access & Capture

With psMOBILE your staff can quickly and easily complete even the most complex assessments on the go.  psMOBILE is 100% configurable.  We can replicate your current forms and processes or you can use one of our Apps covering areas such as assessments such as Social Inclusion Questionnaire, Customer Satisfaction Survey, Health Screening Questionnaire, RAS Assessment,

In this short video, we show you how the psMOBILE App allows you to view and update care records on the go. Risk assessments, care plan reviews or incident reports can all be updated – changes are immediatly available in the Web Portal. You can even capture photos, signatures and print…if you really need to.

The area of high acuity or complex services delivered in the home is seen as a growth opportunity. According to a recent article by Dr Leonid Shapiro and Paul Fegan of Candesic, the key driver of growth in this market is servicing older people living with dementia or the consequences of falls. In addition to

“Our mission is to help organisations get rid of paper.  Paper processes add significant admin overhead and make it almost impossible to monitor compliance and quality. With the new features in psMOBILE 2.1, we are making it even easier for providers to digitalise frontline services, freeing up time to care and helping managers run safer,

Our mission is to help organisations get rid of paper.  Paper processes add significant admin overhead and make it almost impossilbe to monitor compliance and quality. With the new features in psMOBILE 2.1, we are making it even easier for providers to digitalise frontline services, freeing up time to care and helping managers run safer,

Click here to view the webinar recording video Andrew Osborn of Wiltshire County Council delivered an interesting and relevant session on outcomes-based commissioning at a recent webinar hosted by psHEALTH.   psMOBILE Video: Tracking outcomes & digital care management See how psMOBILE can help you track outcomes! Click here Our Digital Care Management platform can

The ability to document value of reablement services or fairly assessing service users’ needs is critical for local government.  Is your reablement service working (whether in-house or outsourced)?  Have you got a cost-effective and fair process for resource allocation?  Watch the RAS video. Paper processes are not only expensive (think: rekeying, copying, multiple versions), they

psMOBILE can help you deliver safer & better care and reduce your operating costs by removing paper and providing you with full visibility.  The Digital Care Management platform is fully configurable can deliver electronic care records, care planning, outcome tracking and visit verification/time & attendance. We help you meet the evolving requirements of all stakeholders,

We were deligthed to support the UnitingCare Partnership that has just been selected as the Preferred Bidder to improve older people’s healthcare and adult community services across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and parts of Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. See the video featuring psMOBILE In a joint statement Aidan Thomas, Chief Executive of CPFT, and Dr Keith McNeil, Chief

Are you planning to rely on paper care records in 2015?  Can you afford to?  Competition is increasing.  You need to deliver cost-effectively, but you also need to satisfy the CQC and commissioners.  Electronic care records can help you deliver better & safer care while reducing cost.  We look at the the benefit of digitalising

We were delighted to see our customer BICS (Brighton and Hove Integrated Care Services) win their second large MSK tender with the East Sussex-win just announce a few weeks ago.  This follows on from the recent success in Central Sussex where BICS (as a member of the Sussex MSK Partnership) won a £210 million over

Watch this webinar where we discuss the tangible cost savings and other financial benefits of mobile care delivery. Our experts have successfully implemented mobile solutions across the country and we are delighted to share our lessons with you.

As one of the leading providers of software and mobile solutions to organisations that deliver health & care in the home, you would expect us to evangelise about how technology innovation will revolutionise the sector. There is a risk we will disappoint you: big benefits can be delivered by adopting existing technologies – mostly relating

Emma Bosson (Branch Manager) and Jess Krause (Care Worker) at MiHomecare in Wisbech discuss the benefits of delivering care in the home using smartphones.

Are you delivering health & care in the home? Are you evaluating mobile-enablement of staff?  In this webinar we discuss the tangible cost savings and other financial benefits of mobile care delivery. Our experts have successfully implemented mobile solutions across the country and we are delighted to share our lessons with you.  In the webinar we will

CQC’s chief inspector for adult social care, Andrea Sutcliffe, pointed out in recent interview with the HSJ (15 August 2014) that NHS organisations need to look beyond their relationship with local authorities and engage with the actual providers of social care, including homecare, when designing integrated services.  “The vast majority of social care is provided

The pressure to improve safety and quality is growing exponentially. On one hand, you have consumers that are increasingly vocal and used to taking to social media (think Twitter or Facebook). On the other hand, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is pursuing inspections and warning notices more and more aggressively. Via the CQC website you can

The pressure to improve safety and quality is growing exponentially. On one hand, you have consumers that are increasingly vocal and used to taking to social media (think Twitter or Facebook). One the other hand, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is pursuing inspections and warning notices more and more aggressively. Via the CQC website you

Bupa Home Healthcare – the UK’s leading provider of home healthcare services in the UK – and psHEALTH have successfully worked together for several years.  The partnership helps Bupa stay at the forefront of the design and management of patient pathways to improve outcomes for the NHS, private patients and pharmaceutical companies. “Bupa Home Healthcare is a pioneer

Automation and integration reduce indirect cost by 30%+ and deliver valuable analytics: Whether you are looking to automate referral management, track health outcomes or introduce mobile working, workflow automation and integration with existing systems is often an essential part of a successful new solution.

In this short interview with Branch Manager Jenni Austin from MiHomecare, she explains how psMOBILE helps eliminate missed or late visits in real-time by using NFC scan in/out and SMS alerts to deliver safer care, proof of delivery and better reporting.

Want to understand the tangible cost savings?  Other financial benefits?  psHEALTH offers providers of health and care in the home a free ½-day assessment and a detailed stakeholder report with no obligations attached. Our experts have successfully implemented mobile solutions across the country and we are delighted to share our lessons with you. If you

Moving from vinyl to the CD player – the initial impact was incremental reliability and portability, but the real (but not immediate) impact was digitalisation.  This led to sweeping changes in the music industry.  Check out the recent article in the HSJ where Matthew Swindells draws an analogy with healthcare & technology.  We are only

Complex Council Care vs Demanding Private Pay Evidence of the projected polarisation of homecare has just arrived in our inbox.  Provisional statistics released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre suggest increasing demand for, but reduced provision of, council-funded homecare.  On one hand, Social Services eligibility criteria are being tightened and provision focussed only on individuals with critical

Download psMOBILE Brochure We officially launched the new version of our psMOBILE platform at the Health+Care Show in London on June 25-26 at Excel.  The reception was fantastic! Over the past 12 months we have been working intensely with our existing and prospective customers to take our platform to the next level.  “Effective management of

Click to view webinar recording Thank you to Kate Pym of MiHomecare, Max Wurr of City & County Healthcare and a large number of participants that made the webinar on June 12 2014 such a success. A few highlights are set out below. In the introduction, Ingolv Urnes of psHEALTH makes the point that health

Visit us at stand W59 at the Health + Care Show, being held at Excel London on June 25 & 26th.  See psMOBILE in action: Mobile care planning, outcomes tracking, real-time reporting.

Safe and profitable delivery of health & care in the home is becoming more challenging.  Patients have more complex needs – thus increasing risks – and commissioners are increasingly asking for better evidence of care delivered and reporting on outcomes.

We were delighted to see our client BICS (Brighton & Hove Integrated Care Services) lead a consortium of independent sector and NHS providers that won a five-year contract, worth £210 million, to provide a new integrated musculoskeletal service across central Sussex. Called the Sussex Musculoskeletal (MSK) Partnership, the consortium is made up of: Brighton & Hove Integrated

Eve O’Sullivan is an Nurse/OT working in the community. In this video she talks about the benefit of mobile working and using tablets in the field. In addition to improving patient safety (e.g. access to care plans) and better tracking of outcomes, the key for her improving productivity.

Circle, the pioneering employee-co-owned partnership, has implemented psHEALTH’s mobile outcomes tracking solution following the company’s recent appointment by the Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group as prime contractor for its integrated musculoskeletal service valued at ca £120 million over five years. The CCG selected Circle to consolidate 20 separate contracts into a single service to deliver better

The integration of health and social care is picking up pace. The Better Care Fund for shared budgets 2015/16 has now been increased to over £5 billion (up from the initially announced £3.8 billion), according to the Health Services Journal.

Arpit Gupta, Senior Associate at psHEALTH, on his experience at psHEALTH.

The NHS and local authorities are to channel over £5 billion into a shared budget in 2015-16 under the Better Care Fund, according to the Health Services Journal (HSJ). That would be significantly more than the £3.8 billion originally earmarked by the government for the fund.

Thank you to the UK Home Care Association for organising a number of interesting sessions in the Homecare Theatre at the Care Show in Bournemouth last week. I was lucky enough to sit in on the ‘Future Challenges in Homecare’ session led by Bridget Warr, the Chief Executive of UKHCA, with panellists including Dominique Kent, Director

psHEALTH will be putting the business case for mobile at this week’s Care Show at Bournemouth.  Come and visit us on stand S202, and the nearby Homecare Theatre, which we’re sponsoring.  For more details, see our newsletter.

Homecare providers are going through both hard and exciting times. What can providers do to improve margins and build valuable organisations for the future?          

psHEALTH, the UK leading enterprise software company for healthcare and homecare delivery, mobilisation and outcome optimisation, today announced that Rob McGovern, formerly Sales Director of Dynamic Change and Allocated Software, has been appointed to the Executive Management Board of psHEALTH as National Accounts Director. Rob has more than 15 years of sales and account management

For the third year running, psHEALTH is a finalist in the HealthInvestor Awards, this year in the ‘Technology provider of the year’ category. The finalists’ entries will now be passed to an independent judging panel, who will select a winner in each category. The winners will be announced at a black-tie dinner at the Grosvenor

Homecare providers now cite the cost and effort of attracting quality applicants for frontline care positions as one of their major business concerns.  Technology is not always the answer, but sometimes it can help you or your staff work smarter. We are excited about the positive reception of Care Workers to psMOBILE, our smartphone solution

psHEALTH will be exhibiting at this year’s Care Show, being held at the Bournemouth International Centre 26th-27th March. psHEALTH provides award-winning case management and mobile health software that enables office and field staff work more effectively, ensure compliance and better document health outcomes. At the show, psHEALTH will be showcasing its psMOBILE platform, and should you like

Richard Haynes, Director of The Community Gateway, discusses the benefits of improved data access and data capture by care workers using mobile or smartphones. Both commissioners and providers will benefit from real-time information and less back-office admin.

Women in the workplace: Mindy Daeschner, psHEALTH co-founder, talks to the Daily Telegraph about her spectacular career and what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Combining experience from large and small companies has certainly given Mindy Daeschner the edge. Her career spans radio station management in the US, strategy consultancy in Hong Kong and healthcare technology in London. Mindy is one of the co-founders of psHEALTH, one of UK’s fastest growing healthcare software companies. Read the full article in the Daily Telegraph.

Seasoned Executive Brings Extensive Track Record of Business and Financial Results to Leading Healthcare Delivery Software Company   psHEALTH, the UK leading enterprise software company for healthcare delivery, mobilisation and outcome optimisation, today announced that Niels Skov, currently serving as General Manager Europe for Model N, Inc. based in London, UK, has been appointed to

Homecare providers are going through both hard and interesting times.  On the one hand there is significant tightening of local government spend and extreme focus on cost per hour; on the other hand, a combination of a rapidly ageing population and real political will to move towards more healthcare delivered in the home. What can

PMLive has published an article by Mindy Daeschner, Director at psHEALTH, discussing the understandable concern among many in the pharma industry about the introduction of a value-based pricing (VBP) system of drug reimbursement in the UK. 

Some people seem to think that Big Data is the cure for all ills. Nowhere is the excitement as great as in healthcare. It is time for a reality check. While data collection and analysis are at the heart of managing big organisations and achieving goals, healthcare has generally lagged behind other industries in extracting

psHEALTH is participating in the 2013 Health Investor Summit, being held on 7th November in Central London.  psHEALTH will host a workshop on the day entitled ‘Connecting Care in a Changing Environment’.  With attendees and speakers from the leading private healthcare providers, investors and experts alongside some of those in the NHS who are driving change, the

Home healthcare services continue to outperform the wider healthcare market because of a number of benefits, including better patient outcomes and cost effective care delivery.

psMOBILE’s enablement platform helps you mobilise your current systems, seamlessly integrating with any patient workflow and rostering solutions on the market.  It supports all major smartphones on the market, and even works when there is no mobile reception, always allowing access to medical records and completion of tasks.

Medtronic, the US medical devices company, has won contracts to take over the management of important cardiology services at two leading English National Health Service entities, as it diversifies into healthcare delivery.  The announcement highlights an interesting transition that is taking place across a number of industries: traditional manufacturers are moving from making things to providing solutions and

What does the post-PC, smartphone-era mean for health and social care providers? We set out the key trends driving the development of psMOBILE and our Mobile-Software-as-a-Service (MSaaS). Tablets will rule the world… Pundits now report that more tablets are sold than laptops and notebooks (the largest PC segment). This year over 200 million tablets are

American business gurus and academics often make big claims.  Professor Michael Porter is no exception.  His recent Harvard Business Review paper is simply called ‘Strategies that will fix healthcare’.  Despite sounding like the silver bullet and being US focussed, it is worth reading for anyone interested in improving healthcare in the UK.  Here is a quick summary: The

More than £5 billion-worth of NHS services is coming up for tender.  This has, according to the Financial Times, triggered an ‘Arms Race’ as private and third-sector providers are looking to position themselves. Where are the opportunities? What will it take to succeed?

‘Health on the move, capitalising on mobility’ is the theme of ThinkDigital 2013, the annual thought leadership forum for digital healthcare. See the interview with Mindy Daeschner, Principal of psHEALTH, discussing innovation, encompassing smartphones, tablets, sensors and wearables.

Mindy Daeschner, guest speaker at ThinkDigital, discussed how mobile health technology delivers the ‘connected patient journey’ and offers pharma a chance to continue to be part of the medicinal solution even after a medicine is prescribed.

On call and online, but is the NHS really on target? psHEALTH is building smarter systems and doctors are finding innovative ways of treating patients with technology that saves time, money and lives, writes Victoria Lambert.

The delivery of health and care services in the home is entering an exciting phase: overall demand is increasing due to an aging population and the prevalence of long-term conditions. The consensus is that care is better and less costly when delivered outside hospitals and nursing homes. At the same time, common sense (and now even politicians) is driving towards integrated care and the pooling of health and social resources. So what does this mean for providers of health and care services in the community? We set out our top five predictions.

The commissioning of outcomes as opposed to activity (=hours ‘delivered’) remains an elusive target.  Will it ever happen?  Our view is yes…but we have a long, long way to go. The recent report by the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) entitled ‘Outcomes Matter: Effective Commissioning in Domiciliary Care’ highlights the frustrating gap.  According to their

‘Health on the move, capitalising on mobility’ is the theme of ThinkDigital 2013, the annual thought leadership forum for digital healthcare. Mindy Daeschner, Principal of psHEALTH, will join other senior industry executives discussing innovation, encompassing smartphones, tablets, sensors and wearables.

The delivery of health and care services in the home is entering an exciting phase:  Overall demand is increasing due to an aging population and the prevalence of long-term conditions.  The consensus is that care is better and less costly when delivered outside hospitals and nursing homes.  At the same time common sense (and now

Use your current systems – don’t rip them out! With our mobile enablement platform you can mobilise your current IT systems with no upfront costs! By leveraging existing system capability, psMOBILE delivers a great user experience both online and offline (when mobile reception is patchy) along with world-class data security.

Are you looking to enable access to health records and capture information in the field? The quickest, low-budget way is typically to build on what you have. Everything from complex images to medicine management and time-sheets can be mobilised. See Mary & Paul in action.

For the second year running, psHEALTH has been nominated for the HealthInvestor Awards in the category IT Innovator of the Year.  “We are so pleased that our customers have put us forward for this award”, says Mindy Daeschner, Principal of psHEALTH.  “Using our flexible case management platform, we are helping our customers by reducing the

The smartphone is changing our lives. Patients and healthcare staff alike are getting used to the power and ease.  In 5 years every healthcare worker will use a mobile or tablet at work – let them use their own device!  Besides significant cost savings, what are the benefits?  Imagine the ease at which a new

Integrated care has been touted as a panacea for managing spiralling healthcare costs, meeting the needs of patients with long-term conditions, and of an ageing population. However, difficult questions are sometimes raised about integrated care and its implications. What is meant by integrated care?  What are its potential benefits? How will it affect the healthcare

Deepak Chandarana joins psHEALTH AS Director of Project Management Office psHEALTH, UK’s leading provider of flexible case management solutions for healthcare, is delighted to announce the appointment of Deepak Chandarana as Director of Project Management. Deepak is a proven and successful executive with experience from Ernst & Young, Accenture and SAP.  Deepak has established a

Healthcare delivery is labour intensive: Staff costs typically represent about 70 per cent of total costs. So if you are looking to reduce costs… you need to understand how and where your people spend their time.

The healthcare industry is not exactly renowned as an ‘early adopter’ of technology. And yet, as the NHS and health systems around the world struggle to cope with ageing populations and an increasing disease burden, health leaders are now relying on technology to transform the sector. On 20 March, HealthInvestor and specialist health IT firm

Summary – Mindy Daeschner of psHEALTH took part in the recent round table arranged by HealthInvestor to discuss the health secretary’s vision of a ‘paperless’ health service. Indeed, by the year 2018 Jeremy Hunt envisages a brave new world where any crucial health information should be available to staff at the touch of a button.

Mobile working, tele-health, big data… the opportunities to use technology to improve healthcare and increase staff productivity look obvious to the outsider. But those in the know understand there is a key hurdle to be crossed before organisations can take advantage of these new tools: systems integration.

Want to improve healthcare productivity?  Want to deliver more integrated, patient-centric care?  ‘Capitation funding’ is finally gaining momentum.  Year-of-Care or similar capitation funding models is the only way to ensure more integrated care and to drive productivity improvements within the NHS.  Without this funding mechanism, providers of healthcare are simply not incentivized to do the

The “perfect storm” of technology changes is coming together and will reshape every business on the planet. Is yours ready for it?

The key theme for Gartner’s annual Symposium IT Expo was the “Nexus of Forces”.

A Nexus of converging forces — social, mobile, cloud and information — is building upon and transforming user behavior while creating new business opportunities. Research over the past several years has identified the independent evolution of four powerful forces: social, mobile, cloud and information. As a result of consumerization and the ubiquity of connected smart devices, people’s behavior has caused a convergence of these forces.

The big problem confronting commissioning effectiveness for the immediate future is that its engine is broken.  That’s not my opinion but that of experts like Monitor, The King’s Fund and The Audit Commission. First, let us understand that vast sums of money which are involved.  Over five percent of GDP passes through either the Payment

The business model of big Pharma is under threat. The future lies with integrated care models, says 72 per cent of top executives in a recent INSEAD survey, and that Pharma must move away from marketing and ‘pill pushing’. psHEALTH agrees. We believe most companies will need to develop services to augment existing therapy areas. In the long-term, success may be found in entirely new, ambitious service offerings for 21st- century healthcare.

For everyone involved in delivering NHS care, there is little doubt about the direction of travel: commissioners are expanding the use of Payment by Results. The next step will be the introduction of Year-of-Care tariffs for long-term conditions. To prosper in this new environment your organisation will need to measure outcomes (~revenue) and understand activity (~cost) at the patient level. Armed with this information you will be able to design services that deliver better healthcare and an improved profit & loss statement.

You spend a lot of time developing your clinical protocols. But how do you know that your nurses and doctors actually comply?

Not only is compliance vital for best practice, but you need to know your house is in order before the Care Quality Commission comes knocking…

Gartner, Forrester and IDC have all written or commented on psHEALTH’s ability to harness the power of the cloud & mobile and deliver highly customised, flexible solution. In its report of July 24 2012, Gartner..

The telehealth scheme has been life-changing for patients with chronic disorders, says Victoria Lambert in The Telegraph.

Case Management: How world-class outcome tracking brings gold medal results

Olympic athletes measure outcomes in colours – gold, silver or bronze. And before collecting medals or breaking world records, each Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps will measure, collate and employ every element of their performance data. No detail is overlooked in the push for outstanding results. That’s what brings world-class outcomes.

There was a great buzz in Paris as Abhishek Agrawal and Ingolv Urnes from psHEALTH presented at the Appian Partner Conference on August 1 2012. Nearly 20 partners from all over Europe, including Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and the Nordic countries took part. Presentations and success stories were presented by psHEALTH, Deloitte and other experts in Case Management and Business Process Management.

Abhishek Agrawal, the co-founder of psHealth speaks at Appian World Conference. Abhishek speaks about how their platform approach is helping shape healthcare delivery. Learn important tips on how the healthcare industry is using mobile BPM to get better outcomes in case management.

Case Management Platform: A flexible IT solution that helps you bend over backwards for clients.

Summary – This paper examines how IT systems can support the increasing use of Case Management. Our findings suggest that traditional Patient Administration Systems (PAS) often prevent effective Case Management and that a new Adaptive Case Management solution is called for. Several case studies suggest that Adaptive Case Management can deliver better outcomes at lower

Connie Moore of Forrester, a global IT research organisation, recently highlighted psHEALTH as a ‘Game Changer.’

Traditional Patient Administration Systems (PAS) can prevent effective case management as a result of their rigid structure. Case studies demonstrate that Adaptive Case Management (ACM) solutions deliver improved outcomes as well as reducing costs to increase overall productivity.

Paul Davies, Executive Director at Walsall, discuss how the team improved reablement outcomes and productivity by 30 percent.

Join us for this exciting webinar with Paul Davies, Executive Director of Walsall Council. Paul will discuss how he and his team are transforming reablement in Walsall Council using eABLE, a web-based solution that measures outcomes and tracks all activities involved in delivering the service.

Summary – Few dispute the view that the principal challenge in health and social care is to deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively. The topic receives increasing attention in academia and the press. Commissioners of care are increasingly expected to ‘pay’ for outcomes, PROMs or results. The challenge is translating these good intentions into practice…  

In this Whitepaper we look at how a combination of a standardised delivery process and rich data helped Walsall improve the productivity of their reablement programme by over 30%.

A number of technologies are coming together –> smartphones, bluetooth devices and SaaS-based patient management systems. This will dramatically change telecare.

Since implementing eABLE, Walsall Council has not only seen significantly improved service users’ quality of life & independence (measured by an ADL-index), but also an 80% reduction in on-going care needs.

Business process management (BPM) delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS) in the Cloud is changing the game in terms of flexible patient management and workflow systems.

“psHEALTH’s mobile solutions have opened up entirely new ways of delivering secure, efficient, real-time patient care, ” says Janelle Hill, Vice President of Gartner.

Dr. Gill MacLeod, CEO of Roodlane Medical, shares her experiences and insight into the changing nature of occupational health and how smart use of IT can improve the case management process and deliver better health outcomes.

Summary – The world is changing. The combination of a tough economic environment, increasing competition and a focus on outcomes will accelerate the need for process improvements. We recognise that healthcare processes are complex and sometimes a matter of life or death; however, we argue that it is precisely for this reason that the potential

Matt Bowsher of Improvement and Efficiency and Paul Davies of Walsall discuss reablement service transformation. Over 130 people took part in this webinar.

Continued… Matt Bowsher of Improvement and Efficiency and Paul Davies of Walsall discuss reablement service transformation. Over 130 people took part in this webinar.

psHEALTH, UK’s leader in online case management and workflow solutions and The Community Gateway CIC, a Social Enterprise providing consultancy to Local Government and the NHS, today announced that they have extended their partnership to develop Reablement IT solutions for Local Authorities, NHS organisations and the independent sector.

 The delivery of social care is going through fundamental changes.  Although budget cuts dominate the headlines (they will for the next 12 to 24 months), the real question is how to provide better, more cost-effective social care.  The future is personalised, outcome-based care at home or in the community commissioned jointly by councils and primary

The potential of case management systems to improve outcomes AND reduce cost is significant and rarely disputed.  A good case management system will reduce the cost of communication between stakeholders, ensure compliance with policies and generate rich management information for further process improvements.  Based on our experience there are 5 key challenges that must be

Providers of healthcare services are under increasing pressure to deliver more for less. Process control, automation and better MI are seen as critical components of case management software. Only a few years ago, comprehensive customised case management and work-flow solutions were the preserve of large businesses willing to spend millions of pounds on projects that

Staff report absence via the internet We leave the shock and awe pandemic stories to the tabloids. Our view is that a very small proportion of the UK population will have serious complications from the flu pandemic. With the exception of GPs and the NHS, the principal challenge for employers is to ensure the running