HSJ Awards 2010: Efficiency Initiative of the Year

2009 Winner of Using Data to Improve Care - NHS North West

In a new category for the 2010 HSJ Awards, Efficiency Initiative of the Year will reward organisations for streamlining systems and processes to improve the effectiveness of patient pathways and clinical intervention. For an insight into how to prepare a successful entry, we look at NHS North West’s 2009 award winning strategy for the Using Data to Improve Care category.

Well written online submissions highlighting the groundbreaking elements of an innovative programme or service, backed up with good evidence, will often make a category shortlist. But then what? How do you turn a strong entry into a winning entry?

The team behind Advancing Quality, NHS North West’s patient care quality improvement programme, offers sound advice. “A good brief will get you so far, but what you say on the day and how passionate you show you are will take you that bit further,” says director Jennifer Butterworth. “Pick the team that presents to the judging panel very carefully.”

Alongside Ms Butterworth were Joe Rafferty, chief executive of Central Lancashire PCT, and Kevin Jones, consultant physician in respiratory medicine at Bolton Hospitals Foundation Trust.

“We had done our research on the panel,” says Ms Butterworth. “That helped us envisage the interests they might have, as well as rehearsing who would take which questions. I discussed development and implementation, Mr Rafferty could give a view on the strategic needs of a primary care organisation and Dr Jones talked about the difference it made to a practising clinician.”

Judges praised Advancing Quality for its clinical engagement, integration of ideas and impact on performance.

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