Service Improvement

When GPs refer to their own services

The wrong service in the wrong place

The Competition Commission is launching a probe into the probity and independence of NHS services [HSJ 19 June 2012]. They have identified two areas where there may be a conflict of interest:

  • GPs referring patients into GP-owned services
  • triage services which decide whether to refer patients into their own secondary care

The issues do need exploring. Who are the best people to design services? And who are the best people to run them? To what extent can we trust individuals and organisations who have a vested financial interest? Are the systems under regulated, or overregulated?

What can we learn from Goldman Sachs?

 Gold Bull (!?!)What can we learn from Goldman Sachs?
Here was the most successful financial organisation since the financial crisis of 2008.  Leading the way without favour or subsidy.  Everyone wanted to be just like them.  How were they doing it - and can we do the same?
Toyota

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Recent Additions and Updates

If I were running the country - encouraging business

Minimum wage

Fantasy government - what would I do if I were in government?  Well how about reduce corporation tax, increase income tax, increase minimum wage and invest in job creation in the regions?  That would be a good start - create jobs where there are workers, then make sure that the right amount of tax is collected and at the same time reduce spend on benefits which are only used to increase profits of selfish organisations.

Would it work?  Have your say.

PwC Report on the Current State of Project Management

PwC Project Management ReportPwC found that successful companies are getting more mature in their project management ability.  This raises the game – successful companies have lower costs from fewer failed projects, and less successful companies have to work harder to catch up.  There are some important lessons to take this report for everyone – Read more…

Joy instead of tedium

The Office

Every office has them - the tasks that have to be done that nobody likes doing.  Whether it's the audit, the wages, standard letters, whatever it is - someone has to do it and it feels like a waste of time and money.

Why should you care?

So you employ somebody, so why do you care about how tedious the task is? Well they are costing money, to do something that could be done far more effectively.

Learning from the Past

Evidence for service improvement

Many public service changes have little basis in evidence. Their success (or otherwise) does not appear to depend on how 'good' the policy itself is, but rather on how it has been implemented. This relies on staff attitudes and relationships. My research falls into a number of broad categories: finding out what is currently happening; what people think about it; and what people think it will mean.

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Consumer Price Index (CPI) Calculator for SROI

CPI components

When calculating a Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation or SROI forecast , sometimes you have to rely on published figures from reports.  But if these are from a few years ago, then they probably need adjusting for inflation.

There are calculators on the web to do this for you, but I found them cumbersome and it was difficult to keep a record of what calculator I'd used, and how, for which value - auditability and transparency is vital for SROI.  So here's a spreadsheet to do this properly!

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