We developed an innovative, interactive dashboard that has significantly enhanced the delivery and effectiveness of frailty care in Lancashire and South Cumbria, fostering system-wide improvements through comprehensive data integration and analysis.

Background

To enhance service delivery for the ageing population with frailty, the Lancashire and South Cumbria (L&SC) Integrated Care System (ICS) initiated a project aimed at building system-level improvement competencies and rethinking service design. In partnership with the University of Cambridge’s Engineering Design Centre, health and care providers from L&SC participated in the ‘Engineering Better Care’ programme, employing system thinking and co-design methodologies to innovate their approach.

A principal goal of this initiative was the creation of a system-wide platform for timely and standardised access to critical frailty data, enabling the tracking of progressive improvements.

Action

A subset of the programme focused on establishing a robust measurement framework. NHS Midlands and Lancashire (NHS ML) embarked on the co-creation of a custom interactive dashboard. NHS ML, as an integral part of this team, engaged closely with health and care specialists to develop a dashboard that integrates multiple data sources. This tool was designed to offer a comprehensive view of frailty conditions and to evaluate the effectiveness of key processes in the L&SC region for identifying and aiding the ageing frail population.

Impact

The outcome was an interactive dashboard, not only displaying improvement trends but also enabling the analysis of diverse measures. This facilitates a deeper understanding of variations and best practices in primary, community, and secondary care settings. This tool is now instrumental in guiding and assessing the effectiveness of various system-level improvement initiatives within the L&SC health and care system. Notably, these initiatives include the implementation of a standardised clinical frailty score and a unified care plan template. The dashboard has become a vital asset in monitoring the reliability of these interventions and in gauging their broader impact on our healthcare system.

Feedback

“Working with NHS ML on this exciting piece of work has been a fantastic experience and having their expertise and advice throughout the journey has been invaluable.  This has demonstrated the impact of working together as a system and what can be achieved if all of the right people are engaged and sat around the same table.  We look forward to continuing to work alongside NHS ML as we continue to develop this dashboard and new standardised data set adopted across L&SC as part of this work.”

Kurt Bramfitt | Senior Associate Director of Continuous Improvement | Lancashire Teaching Hospitals