Delayed patient discharge - sometimes known as "bed-blocking" - in the NHS is a problem that affects us all. In a fascinating collaboration, the Department of Health and Social Care turned to the Royal Academy of Engineering to use their expertise in systems thinking and managing complex processes to identify the true causes and potential solutions.
Over several months, the academy worked with two NHS Trusts, interviewing staff to fully understand and map out the patient journey from hospital admission to discharge, pinpointing the bottlenecks that can cause delays.
With such a huge amount of information and findings, the academy needed to communicate their research in a way that would engage policymakers and NHS leaders to help drive efficiencies and real change.
“Throughout the process, we gathered a wealth of information from lots of sources and joined it all up to create some very detailed diagrams,” explains Dr. John Cully, Policy Advisor, Health and Resilience, at The Royal Academy of Engineering.
“However, we soon realised that these diagrams were far too complex to effectively communicate the work to those not directly involved in the project. So the challenge for us was how do we communicate this in a much more engaging and familiar way?”
We ran a series of workshops with Dr. Cully and key stakeholders at the academy to pull out the key challenges and opportunities for improvement, creating a rich, visual summary.
“Having Scriberia, with a fresh perspective and no prior background in the project, was really useful in helping us distil the key messages.”
Dr. John Cully
Policy Advisor, Health and Resilience, Royal Academy of Engineering.
“When you’re heavily involved in a project you often get caught up and lost in the details, so having Scriberia, with a fresh perspective and no prior background in the project, was really useful in helping us distil the key messages,” says Dr. Cully.
The infographic has been shared with policymakers and hospital leaders, handed out in briefing packs and can be found on their site here, providing an engaging and accessible overview of the project findings.
“It's a fantastic tool in our arsenal that provides an immediate, clear and simple overview of the project and the significance of the findings, far more effectively than a page full of text!”
Dr. Cully says, “It's a fantastic tool in our arsenal that provides an immediate, clear and simple overview of the project and the significance of the findings, far more effectively than a page full of text!”
“We also had it printed, which turned out really well. We sent copies to key stakeholders, knowing that putting it directly in their hands would be a powerful way to capture their attention,” he adds.
He adds: “Scriberia were really flexible and accommodating throughout the process and we are all very pleased with how it turned out. We’ve made extensive use of it so far and will continue to do so.”