Productivity considerations
'Productivity considerations for service design' is a new approach to productivity guidance being trialled as a beta alongside selected Map of Medicine care maps.
Meeting the dual demands of improved productivity and quality of care is a challenge facing all levels of the NHS. The government's white paper, 'Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS', sets a target of unlocking £20 billion in productivity savings by 2014. The key to realising this target is increasing efficiency and quality without increased resources. Using evidence-based recommendations to reduce variations in clinical practice will contribute significantly to this aim. Such recommendations need to balance cost-effectiveness with retaining or enhancing quality of care.
To this end, supporting information has been made available alongside Map of Medicine maps. This information contains recommendations to help those charged with healthcare improvement and service design in the UK improve productivity while maintaining high quality care.
The recommendations are based on critically appraised productivity guidance identified within high quality evidence sources. These sources include national guidelines used to create the clinical pathways, as well as economic evaluations from health economic databases and Zynx Health (a sister company of Map of Medicine).
Although there are many claims of interventions lowering costs whilst maintaining quality of care, only a few are backed by strong evidence. These have been brought together to create concise, authoritative productivity guidance that can be implemented by service designers.
You can download the productivity recommendations below:
Cardiovascular disease risk management
Stable coronary artery disease
Stroke and transient ischaemic attack
Dementia – An evidence search and appraisal was performed to identify productivity messages that might be of use to those charged with delivering dementia services. However, relevant messages were either not evident in the sources searched, or did not demonstrate the rigorous evidence base necessary to be included as a recommendation.