All around England, the NHS and local councils are coming together with other local organisations to find innovative new ways to provide better care for citizens through sustainability and transformation plans<\/a> (STPs). Although it\u2019s a national scheme, each of the 44 plans is place-based and built around the needs of the local populations.<\/p>\n For Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust<\/a>, their first step in that transformational journey was thousands of miles long \u2013 literally. To provide the 60+ services to 300,000 patients across its many locations in the STP footprint, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust has a team of mobile and peripatetic staff, clinicians and service providers who work across the entire region. Together they were travelling nearly 7 million miles each year to see patients at home and in specialist centres.<\/p>\n In a move to provide these services in a more streamlined and efficient way, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust turned to Microsoft for a mobile working solution. They chose Skype for Business. \u201cWhat became apparent quite quickly,\u201d says Damian Parkinson, Director of IM&T for the Trust, \u201cwas the significant savings in travel time and the mileage reimbursement costs. But what we also found was that by not having to drive somewhere, it freed up more productive time for our service providers.\u201d In its first year, Parkinson says, the Trust saved over \u00a3500,000 in travel expenses and estimates more than \u00a31.5M in savings for the third year of the programme. For many, this money and time saved would have been enough of a business benefit; for Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust this was just a first step.<\/p>\n Once the Trust saw how convenient it was for their mobile teams to use Skype for Business, it identified several new use cases to further their digital transformation. For instance, a significant challenge faced by clinicians was being able to coordinate care and enable shared decision making about treatment plans during Care Programme Approach (CPA) meetings. These meetings are critical forums where treatment and discharge plans are discussed and agreed between patients, carers, health and social care community-based staff and the ward team.\u00a0 The meetings involve the coordination of many professionals\u2019 diaries, across various teams in multiple locations so even finding a time and location that worked for everyone was quite a challenge. By using Skype for Business for the CPA meetings they are much easier to schedule. Also, it is easier for everyone to attend and contribute, from wherever they are.<\/p>\n Deputy Medical Director and Chief Clinical Information Officer, Dr Chris Linton, regularly uses Skype for Business to coordinate these meetings. \u201cThe use of Skype for Business has reduced the delay in convening such meetings as health and social care professionals can join in the CPA from within their own locality,\u201d Dr Linton notes.\u00a0 \u201cThis reduced delay results in earlier decisions about treatment for patients and earlier focus on discharge planning.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trust is also using Skype for Business to provide better care for patients directly. They\u2019ve begun piloting the use of Skype for Business with their Speech and Language services. If a patient has internet access and a computer or suitable mobile device, a therapist can use video conferencing to interact with and monitor the patient\u2019s status in their own home. Not having to travel or wait in a reception area makes life that much easier for the patient.<\/p>\n Beyond patient convenience, Lancashire Care is also seeing the clinical benefits to health and wellbeing. In their Adult Mental Health Services practice, clinicians have been able to interact with patients and families through the in-patient service in the patient\u2019s home. In some cases, carers have seen clinical behaviours diminish significantly because a patient was either in a familiar environment or didn\u2019t have the added anxiety of travelling and waiting in reception.<\/p>\n Building on the success of their team collaboration and patient engagement initiatives with Skype for Business, the Trust is looking beyond just healthcare to connect with teams and services provided by the local authority, joining up care. Whether that means being able to collaborate with social care teams or police and probation, the ability to collaborate and share information will lead to better outcomes for all Lancashire residents.<\/p>\n One of the main reasons the Trust has been successful is the approach they have taken introducing Skype for Business. As Parkinson notes when it came to implementation: \u201cWe tried to make it not feel like they were adopting technology. We tried to get rid of the reasons why they would say it was hard to change.\u201d Initially, Parkinson says, users viewed the adoption of Skype for Business as an IT project, but with a roll out team that helped to remove the barriers \u2013 everything from making it easy to add Skype for Business to meeting requests, to making agile help teams available to work Skype for Business into existing processes that depend on collaboration \u2013 users soon began to see it as an important tool that enabled them to improve the way they work, benefiting patients and themselves.<\/p>\n As users become more comfortable with Skype for Business, Parkinson says, they\u2019re much more adept at finding new innovative ways to apply the technology, and it\u2019s clear that the adoption continues to be a success. Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust continues to see month-over-month growth in the use of Skype for Business to enhance normal, everyday communications and continue their journey towards wider digital transformation.<\/p>\n Find out more about the Virtual Health Experiences on Skype for Business demoed in the webinar<\/a> with Digital Health and about other recently announced technologies<\/a> for healthcare in Microsoft\u2019s Healthcare NExT<\/em> programme.<\/p>\nNew models for team collaboration<\/h2>\n
Improving patient care and engagement<\/h2>\n
Connecting services with the broader community<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s not an IT project, it\u2019s a business change project<\/h2>\n
Come join us at the Microsoft UK Healthcare NExT Summit<\/h2>\n