How healthcare communities use the Map

Healthcare communities looking to redesign services to meet additional demands use Map of Medicine care maps as a starting point for clinically-led service improvement. By using the Map, they can achieve quality and productivity improvements faster and more sustainably.

The Map brings together processes and people to deliver high quality care in the face of economic challenges.

Design

Care maps are an ideal approach to healthcare, incorporating evidence-based information, national policy and expert knowledge. The topics that the maps address are prioritised based on cost, healthcare burden and unjustified variations in care.

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The care maps can be used to design local healthcare services and support commissioning. The Map was used as the template by NHS Cumbria and Lancashire Cardiac and Stroke Network to develop a heart failure service, as referenced by Price CP, Martin L. Novel markers, a payer's perspective: Commissioning a new service. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 2010; 70: 103-08. doi 10.3109/00365513.2010.493420. 

Local clinical groups agree how their particular challenges will be met and adapt the map to reflect their service design decisions.

Implement

Local care maps on the Map are visible across organisations, allowing local innovation to be shared quickly and establishing a benchmark for the clinical practice expected of providers.

The Map of Medicine Adoption Framework assists healthcare communities in implementing the Map. Deployment is generally split into three phases; planning, localisation and benefits realisation.

Monitor

The Map of Medicine can be used to communicate, compare and optimise the local patient journey.

By using key interventions data to drive performance measurement and reporting, healthcare communities can review performance metrics against other benchmarks. This is supported by the benefits realisation phase of the Adoption Framework.

More than 50 local communities in the NHS are already reaping the rewards of using the Map. See their stories on our case studies page.