Care Pathways Newsletter July 2008

Welcome to the first edition of the Blue-Crow Care Pathways Newsletter.
We hope that you find our articles interesting and informative with the links to further information useful. The Newsletter will be published monthly with the next edition available in August. To ensure that we capture the important issues from across the Care Pathways community, we are keen that our readers forward newsworthy articles for future editions. Articles can be forwarded at anytime and will be placed in the next edition.

Our aim is to provide practical information and advice for Care Pathways professionals across the UK. As this is the first version your feedback would be welcomed.

Feedback and future articles should be forwarded to
enquiries@blue-crow.com


A Message from the European Pathway Association








On 25th and 26th June 2008, the Integrated Care Pathway (ICP) conference was organised by Healthcare Events and the European Pathway Association. It was the third edition of the ICP conference that was organised by both parties. We have experienced two wonderful days with exciting presentations and workshops, aimed on both novice and experience delegates. On this year's programme there was explicit attention for 'lean management', statistics and evidence based medicine. With these topics, the programme was very attractive.

The three key 'take home messages' are:


1. Care pathways can be very effective tools in improving patient outcome and reducing variance in patient care,
2. Care pathways are very important when developing or implementing electronic patient records,
3. Care pathways are really international.

Getting started with your Care Pathway Project

During the event many speakers provided suggestions and examples of how they've addressed the challenges of developing integrated care pathways. In summary, the key steps for successfully running such a project are:

Step 1) Define a clear objectives for the project
Step 2) Have all stakeholders involved and ensure all relevant input is captured
Step 3) Define the scope and the boundaries of the pathways you are developing
Step 4) Understand what is your current situation to establish a baseline for change
Step 5) Deploy the appropriate tools and methodologies
Step 6) Design your new optimised care pathways
Step 7) Review, continuously update and improve your pathways

Thoughts about Care Pathways 2008

The recent Care Pathways event was a great opportunity for healthcare organisations from across Europe to share knowledge, experience and best practice. The event has raised questions which are worth exploring in order to progress with the future development of care pathways.

There is a multitude of variance in the way in which Care Pathways are created, from both the design and documentation points of view. There does not seem to be a consistent approach in delivering this crucial element of 21st century healthcare.

In many other industries an agreed standard is established, in order to ensure that there is a consistent approach understood by all. There are several different standards which can be adopted to suit the requirements of the industry/organisation, and these can be used to facilitate the progression of this essential exercise.

In order to continue the great work that has been started there are several lessons that we can learn from this event and the presentations that were given;-

• Using care pathways as a way of delivering quality care standards
• Delivery of best practice in healthcare in a multi-disciplinary environment
• Developing a consistent but flexible approach to pathway creation and structure
• Using care pathways in improving standards of quality
• Using Lean and Six Sigma to drive organisational change
• Not people processing, keeping the patient at heart of service

A personal message from Blue-Crow

Ever since we first established our Healthcare Practice in 2005, our aim has been to develop innovative yet practical solutions which provide real benefit to our clients. We've been able to achieve this goal through true consulting services in the form of mentoring and collaboration.

Our easy-to-use tools, process modelling solutions and process improvement techniques, (which include LEAN and Six Sigma) allow us to work with you to deliver care pathways that drive real efficiency and success across your organisation resulting in better customer and patient care.

Following the Integrated Care Pathway (ICP) conference on 25th and 26th June 2008, we felt that a regular Newsletter to all participates will be a useful tool. Feel free to pass this newsletter to anybody you believe will be interested.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions, suggestions or requests.

Sincerely,

The Blue-Crow Team