Stopping work of lower value, where are we now? 

 1st September 2014

In May 2014 we invited every team to identify activities that provided little value to patients or staff and could be stopped.  We’re now pleased to get back to you with some initial results from this work.

It was really encouraging to see how many people took the time to think about this.  But we also know that in some cases it was a struggle to identify work that could be stopped.  As the QI programme progresses this should become easier.

The ideas people sent can be grouped into three themes:

• Ideas related to duplication of meetings 

What’s happening? Some teams have trialled combining meetings or even stopping them all together.  In one case, a team saved over 20 hours of staff time per month.

• Unnecessary travel to Trust HQ for training

What’s happening? We now have a group working on improving the way that we provide statutory and mandatory training.

• Duplication of recording clinical information 

What’s happening? This feedback has been absorbed into existing clinical transformation work streams in the configuration of Open-RiO and other systems.

The above are just a few examples of things we can stop or improve to make better use of our time.  This work is so important, as to truly deliver the highest quality mental health and community care in England, then we need to work differently, not just harder.  And making space and time so that we can focus on improving quality will be integral to this.

We’d like to repeat this exercise in the future but if you have any ideas for improvement in the meantime please get in touch with the QI team.

Many thanks

Navina Evans & Kevin Cleary

Stopping Work of Lower Value – May 2014

As part of our QI programme, we are encouraging everyone to think about how to work differently and challenge the status quo, driven by what matters most to our patients and staff.

We’d like to invite every team to identify one or more activities that currently provides little value to your patients or staff, that you could stop doing.

View our introductory podcast, and then have a discussion within your team. Use the checklist below to help identify something you currently spend time on that adds little of value. Ideas could include shortening or removing a meeting, removing duplicated paperwork, reducing travel time.

We strongly recommend that you consult all of your team members in thinking about this, and that you involve your patients and their carers/families in identifying activities that they feel add little to their care.

Once you’ve agreed which 1, 2 or 3 things you would like to stop, submit your ideas using the form below.

If you’d like help in thinking this through, feel free to contact me, your service leads or the QI team.

Submit your ideas by the end of June, after which a panel of service users and staff will review all the ideas submitted. We’ll then feedback to everyone in September.

Your idea

• What would you like to stop?
• Would you like to stop this completely, reduce it or change the way you do this to be more efficient?
• How much time do you estimate you will save (each day / week / month)?
• Have you involved patients and families in thinking about which activity to stop?
• Have you involved all your staff in thinking about which activity you might wish to stop?

Checklist: Think about the below to make sure stopping this activity won’t have any adverse implications

• Would stopping this activity have any safety implications?
• Is this activity critical for the functions of another team?
• Is this activity critical for any assurance or performance monitoring requirements?

If you answer YES to any of these questions, please choose another activity to stop