The East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN) and Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust have received funding to implement a system-wide early warning tool for acute pathways to allow better response planning.

Recent winters have highlighted challenges for the health and care system in managing high volumes of emergency admissions and patient discharges.

A pioneering project supported by EMAHSN is aiming to demonstrate how expert analysis of large and multiple data sources can be used to support operational decision-making in the NHS during periods of exceptional demand.

The project has been awarded more than £50k by the Health Foundation as part of its Advancing Applied Analytics programme. It will explore how real time information from the clinical observations recorded in emergency departments can be combined with other data to predict peaks in demand and discharge pressures earlier.

The project aims to test whether ‘actionable intelligence’ – including information collected routinely to ensure services are responsive to patient needs – can be used to allow a more considered and planned response across the health economy, for example allowing time to deploy staff differently or mobilising increased community support.

Effective modelling of this data could allow hospital, community health and social care partners to plan responses in the short term, rather than urgently responding once the intense pressure to discharge patients has already hit the system.

The project has potential to impact positively through reducing delays and waste, lengths of stay, bed occupancy and re-admissions and also improving the efficiency of care processes and improving quality of care.

Dr. Mark Simmonds, Consultant in Acute and Critical Care Medicine at NUH and Clinical Lead for the project, said: “Working with our colleagues at the EMAHSN on this sort of project captures both clinical insight and research capability, to help make our hospitals work better for patients. As a result of nationally recognised information technology developments, we now have a lot of information about how patients flow into and through our hospitals. We are hoping to use this to help with future planning but perhaps more importantly, respond faster across the health and care system to variations in demand.”

Glen Howard, Health Analytics Project Manager at EMAHSN, said: “This gives us an exciting opportunity to harness valuable insight obtained as a by-product of the information already collected as part of routine high quality patient care. It’s great to be working with the NUH analytical and operations teams on this project which use the power of analytics to help the whole system to plan the response to periods of high need for hospital care, and it’s fantastic that the Health Foundation are supporting us is in this work.”

Martin Bardsley, Senior Fellow at the Health Foundation, said: “We know from our report Understanding analytical capability in health care the importance of improving the way we use information and analysis in the NHS. It is widely acknowledged that health care services cannot access the right type of analysis or make the best use of data that already exist, never mind take advantage of new data streams and methods that are becoming possible.

“This is the second round of our Advancing Applied Analytics programme and we have selected 11 exciting local projects that will demonstrate how better analysis can lead to better health and care. In particular these projects will address the capability deficiencies that exist, and provide lessons for the wider health and care system. We look forward to working with the project teams to highlight the value of analytical skills and explore the best ways that they can be delivered.”

The project has been funded for 12 months from September 2018. Once the model has been developed and tested, it is hoped that it can provide a template for adoption and spread across other NHS Trusts.

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Notes to editors

The East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN) is one of 15 Academic Health Science Networks in England. EMAHSN brings together the NHS, universities, industry and social care to transform the health of the region’s 4.6M residents and stimulate wealth.

Current priorities focus on identifying and spreading innovations that address challenges including cancer, obesity, diabetes, mental health, respiratory disease, liver disease and support for frail older people.

For more information visit www.healthinnovation-em.org.uk 

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