Creating conditions for urgent care improvement in 100 days
Health Innovation South West partnered with Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) and RE!NSTITUTE to apply a rapid change methodology to help create new ways of working in urgent care.
Devon ICB has been exploring innovative approaches to improving urgent care through the Integrated System Development Programme.
Health Innovation South West facilitated a partnership between the ICB and the RE!NSTITUTE 100 days methodology, focusing on expertise from cross-system teams, to work on ambitious goals of their choosing in a time sensitive way. Health Innovation South West facilitated the partnership and documented insights, leveraging previous urgent care analysis and Outward Mindset training which seeks to develop how partners collaborate, support, and align.
The RE!NSTITUTE 100-Day Challenge, which initially focused on how patients navigate care, commenced its planning in early 2023. Teams addressed challenges in End of Life, Falls, and later, Long Term Conditions. Frontline cross-system teams, supported by senior sponsors, defined their own outcomes, and underwent weekly coaching huddles for 100 days to achieve rapid progress. Workshops were held at key points to assess progress and plan next steps, with a focus on sustaining improvements and fostering collaborative ways of working.
Learning from the challenge included:
- The “RE!NSTITUTE 100-Day Challenge” teams demonstrated impact against their quantifiable goals – a notable achievement in light of increased pressures, creating challenges in balancing capacity. A number of different innovations were introduced during the timeframe.
- The Challenge teams also achieved the relational objectives, reporting on important shifts in collaborative cross-system working, trust, better relationships and communications.
- Future plans include continued support for projects beyond the Challenge and establishing a 100-Day alumni network for knowledge sharing. Additionally, there are efforts to enhance coaching capacity within Devon ICB and explore further challenges in different areas.
- Long Term Conditions: Embedded the Joy App, leading to a change in how LTCs were managed with a more holist approach, including 51 referrals into preventative, “non-medical services” . The team are now seeking to develop a single point of access centered around a well-being college.
- End of Life: Completed a review of EoL pathways and supported a number of identified care homes, creating a set of recommendations to set the foundations for new innovative projects in this area.
- Falls: Put in place a QR code contact system to ensure the right person was contacted at the right time, tested new pathways spanning multiple points of care to enable falls prevention, with measurable impact visible on a newly embedded dashboard.
