One key objective for the NHS is that by the end of 2008, there will be an 18 week maximum wait between a patient receiving a GP referral and the start of their treatment.
Although some patients will have fairly straight-forward and easily-diagnosed complaints and may well receive treatment in less than 18 weeks, others will have much more complicated ailments resulting in more complex pathways.
These patients may need all sorts of tests and face a number of stages of diagnosis. It could be nigh on impossible to predict their particular pathway to treatment at the outset. Yet the 18 week target will stand.
So achieving the 18 week target will require a new way of working. Service transformation underpinned by innovative IT solutions.
There are a number of technologies which may help clinicians hit the target. BT's vision is to bring all of these technologies and applications together to enable people to work together using 'presence' and 'collaboration' to the NHS.
Presence: The ability to be able to understand the availability of key colleagues using online resources
Collaboration: The ability to work collaboratively on data, applications or documents as part of a virtual team
Presence and collaboration technologies can help simplify complex situations which would otherwise lead to inefficiencies and delays. Staff are empowered, decisions can be made more quickly, and processes are streamlined.
Using PDAs, laptops or other kinds of access device, members of care teams can quickly and easily see if and when a colleague is available. They can work in real-time with colleagues from other disciplines no matter where any team member happens to be based. Things move faster and patients are treated more quickly.
The end result is increased efficiency of the whole operation. Bed-blockers are reduced and discharges made more efficiently - all made possible by NHS staff having the right infrastructure and the right applications at their fingertips.
BT calls this Healthflow.
BT Healthflow - one for the future?
Healthflow is not just a concept.
Although it sounds like a futuristic scenario Healthflow, and all the benefits it can deliver, is closer than you think. If your organisation has been connected to the N3 network, if you have implemented or are considering wireless or a converged network, if you have worked with other trusts or local authorities on how to share data and work collaboratively then you have already started on the journey to the infrastructure required to run integrated presence and collaboration.
Many organisations have already started on this journey - and have seen the benefits.