Deploying new technology at scale
Operose Health is a directly owned subsidiary company of Centene that provides NHS primary care to 640,000 patients, operating 66 practices across England. As part of its commitment to work with the wider health and care system, Operose Health collaborates with trusts across the country to, for example, reduce emergency department attendance.
Improved data analysis and interpretation is a nationwide priority across the NHS and presents the opportunity to drive improvements for patients, populations, and systems. However, staff time and funding can be limiting factors in establishing data driven projects, particularly at smaller GP practices. Working at scale can support practices by providing the time, capacity and expertise to use, interpret and implement data-driven change.
Operose Health has developed a customisable dashboard platform called EZ Analytics (EZ-A) to drive improvements across all primary care areas. It can identify areas of variation, benchmark practices against local and national outcomes, tackle inequalities and optimise clinical and operational activity.
New technology at scale to manage population health
EZ-A had to be deployed at scale to manage population health across a primary care network or wider region effectively. It allows practices to use a structured and organised data-driven approach to deliver better experience and care for patients. This drives efficiency for the practice, reduces the likelihood of further complications, and streamlines practice operations, saving valuable time for staff.
EZ-A was developed in house by Operose Health and was launched in 2017. It was designed to incorporate key performance data from all clinical systems and is now firmly embedded across the group and is used by other primary care providers and local authorities. Some of its benefits include:
- Benchmarking performance across a set of clinical indicators.
- Gaining insight into improving long-term condition management.
- Improving practice sustainability.
- Optimising and improving medicine safety.
- Improving immunisation performance.
- Accessing financial reports to make improvements based on profits and losses and simplify payments to GP providers.
- Identifying and proactively managing patients with multiple morbidities.
- Monitoring performance, setting goals and supporting decision making.
EZ-A has effected large and sustained improvements in medication monitoring in more than 30 high risk drugs and many long-term conditions. The group has also seen significantly increased detection rates across various long-term conditions. The platform highlights the benefits of harnessing new technology at scale to adopt a population health approach and improve patient outcomes while driving efficiency in general practice.