“I now understand and acknowledge that normal variation can exist and outcomes outside of this variation are what should be investigated for improvement.”
James Lay is a Project Manager at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust. The vast majority of his work is around metrics data, benchmarking statistics for the organisation, building dashboards, cost improvement tracking and looking at A&E metrics for improvement.
James is currently involved in the following pieces of work at his organisation:
- Building a Cost Improvement Plan (CIP) reporting tool
- Dashboard reporting using PowerBI for reporting on operational outcomes at trust and progress
- Bed modelling
- Deep dive survey analysis for the Rehab and Neuro services
- Deep dive analysis for Specialist Surgery
- Involved in getting data for some HSJ award submissions for integrated discharge
- Metrics for safer care bundle on wards
After attending the SPC in Healthcare course, James now understands and acknowledges that variation can actually exist and it is the outcomes outside of normal variation that need to be investigated in order to make improvements. James is now supporting other staff to understand variation as he feels that, once his organisation has a stable process for monitoring variation, they will be able to look at what improvements need to be made. James also enjoyed learning about how to better implement PDSA approach in improvement work.
James is now in the process of embedding SPC for service improvement in his organisation by helping to provide staff with tools for improvement. For example, James wants to help others in his organisation understand where changes do need to be made and where the data is just showing normal variation. James wants his organisation to move towards performance management instead of using the monitoring approach, so he is currently working with his team to move the trust towards this way of working. Attending the course also has given James the skills for progression within the Trust.
James attended the Improvement Academy SPC in Healthcare workshop, funded through the Yorkshire and Humber AHSN on 24th October 2018.
