Tag: PLICS

How Northern Ireland Trusts successfully adopted Synergy, CACI’s patient level costing solution

Posted on: 15 August 2024
How Northern Ireland Trusts successfully adopted Synergy, CACI’s patient level costing solution

Background 

Migrating to and developing a patient level costing solution (PLICS) programme has been a prominent topic of conversation for the costing community in Health and Social for years now, especially following its successful adoption within other jurisdictions. Trusts and the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) alike have recognised the value of integrating a PLICS programme to enhance analytical capabilities and the quality and granularity of Health and Social Care (HSC) financial information. By integrating a PLICS programme, providers and commissioners would be able to better understand how resources are used to identify opportunities for cost reduction, improved efficiencies and achieving clinical level ownership. 

As an increasing number of Northern Ireland Trusts began reaching the end of their original costing systems’ lifetimes and a drive to deliver PLICS data as quickly as possible, a decision to initiate a tender process was made. 

Although the tender process– managed by colleagues in the Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service (BSO PaLS)– was lengthy, CACI’s patient level costing solution, Synergy, came out on top thanks to its costs and exceptional quality, along with CACI’s project team’s demonstrated understanding of the Northern Ireland landscape through their previous experiences.  

Customer lead

Eilis Calvert is a head accountant in financial performance within the Strategic Planning and Performance Group of the Department of Health, responsible for producing guidance, returns submissions, data quality assurance and usage in the most effective capacities possible. 

Project mapping & planning   

According to Eilis, Synergy’s ability to deliver high-quality PLICS product and data insight with ease and flexibility would address each of the Northern Ireland Trusts’ needs, especially gaining a better understanding of their population. Previous systems costed in aggregate, resulting in a lack of visibility or granularity that Synergy could rectify. In addition, some Trusts previously needed to take additional steps to populate the necessary NI costing template following the completion of the costing process, which Synergy 4 would output directly and significantly reduce time for Trusts. 

“Prior to [Synergy], we used higher-level costing data, but the devil is in the details, so getting that level of granularity [was critical] to help us to really understand the whole patient journey, especially as our healthcare system covers social care,” Eilis explained. 

Action

The scope of Northern Ireland Trusts differs from NHS in other UK jurisdictions. While the Northern Ireland Trusts lean heavily on the work of NHS England and NHS Wales in developing patient level methodology, Eilis recalls the significant work that had to go into developing methodology and guidance for other elements specific to Northern Ireland, such as social care and adapting datasets to fit the electronic patient data collected in Northern Ireland. Reporting requirements also differed for these Trusts, such as the inclusion of Programmes of Care.  

CACI helped the Trusts overcome these differentiation challenges by developing additional guidance aspects and modifying software to process data and report in the necessary capacity that would meet HSCNI’s unique needs. CACI’s project lead provided continuous support and advice through to the final cost submission being made. A constant flow of communication was maintained between CACI and the Trusts, ranging from ad-hoc calls to the creation and delivery of formal reports. CACI’s communicative approach ensured that a collective understanding was met across the Trusts, with Eilis sharing that CACI was “very supportive of everyone’s individual needs while ensuring that the department received the consistency that they required”. 

Overcoming challenges  

Working with such large data volumes and patient level data was unfamiliar territory for the costing teams, leading to teams having to upskill in these areas. Patient level cost allocation only began (and through a new system) in 2023, changing the pre-existing costing methodology from what the teams had been using for several years prior. With a plethora of data to review and a new system to work with, the cost review challenge was substantially heightened.  

The implementation of Synergy began in January 2023, with Trusts trained up on the new system within the year, including working on a pilot model and completing a cost submission. Despite Eilis recalling this time as one of intensity, she is proud of what the HSC costing community have achieved. 

“The project team at CACI was great at bringing people along this very challenging journey on a very tight deadline and keeping us all right, so that we were able to achieve what we needed to in that first year,” Eilis shared. 

Success 

Working with CACI on the PLICS data was helpful, although not without its challenges. The Northern Ireland Trusts are continuing to work with CACI this year to further develop and implement individualised validation and cost review dashboards to ensure Trusts will be equipped to meet their needs and deadlines as they arise. 

The importance of an exceptional patient level costing solution

Posted on: 24 April 2023
The importance of an exceptional patient level costing solution

Costing teams within NHS healthcare organisations can play a vital role in identifying inefficiencies and cost improvements that will enhance services. This means they deserve an exceptional Patient Level Costing Solution (PLICS) that will not just handle the NCC submission, but will also give them the tools to flourish in several other capacities from making meaningful decisions to developing internal reports that will consistently validate these decisions and benefit both healthcare professionals and patients daily.

But what makes an exceptional costing system? And why exactly is it so important? That’s what we’ll discuss in this blog so you can make an informed choice on what you should be getting out of your PLICS solution.

What capabilities should you look for in an exceptional patient level costing solution?

If you want your PLICS system to be considered exceptional, these are the capabilities that you should be looking for:

Accessibility & ease of use that encourages self-sufficiency…

Ease of use is key to assessing how good a costing system is – your costing system should help your team be more efficient not hold them back. Your costing team should be able to run calculations quickly so that they can maximise their time analysing the data rather than exhausting their efforts trying get the data in a comprehensible form.

…no matter what level of technical skill you have in the team

Another sure sign that you have an outstanding costing system is that it is an end-to-end solution that can be easily accessed by any team member with any technical skill level. This helps the process of migration and implementation through to data dissemination be as seamless as possible. A solution that’s customised and flexible in its design will encourage all team members to use it regularly to continuously meet NHS needs and challenges as they arise.

Simple & successful National Cost Collection (NCC) submissions

As well as being compliant to meet your annual costing return and meeting the National Cost Collections and PLICS submission requirements, an optimal costing system will also include the tools and supplier support to make the often-onerous submission process as simple as possible. The value of an experienced supplier supporting you through the process cannot be overstated, as this means you can be confident in your team submitting on time and without errors no matter its size.

Insights & analytics that are accurate & reliable

Another feature of an exceptional costing system is that it is capable of easy integration with your organisation’s wider analytics platform or strategy. Your costing system should act as a reputable source for sharing data widely, both across your organisation and, most importantly, with ICS Partners. The more secure and trustworthy the analytics you can integrate, the easier it will be for your costing team to collaborate with members of the ICS on treatment cost analysis and the impact of recovery plans.

Low cost, high return on investment for your organisation

Do you find your team spending excessively on a solution that causes frustrations or complications? An outstanding costing solution will be of reasonable cost to your organisation and simplify your experience, resulting in a high return on investment and low total cost of ownership (TCO).

Why the quality of your costing system matters

An exceptional costing system creates a reduction in unwarranted variations and will help your team orchestrate strategic service transformation through insightful analysis of the costing data. It will also encourage an information-driven culture and increased data literacy not just within the costing team, but across the organisation. This will help NHS organisations secure healthy financial positions and deliver optimal outcomes.

Adopting and implementing a state-of-the-art costing solution like Synergy is not as challenging as you may think. The long-term benefits of doing so far outweigh the short-term feelings of uncertainty so is something you should consider when thinking about a potential upgrade to your existing system.

If you’d like to find out more about how a new and improved costing system could help your organisation, please contact our expert, Susan Brooks. or take a look at Synergy, our PLICS System and what our customers have to say about it.