China cups and therapy dogs with a dash of teal

China cups and therapy dogs with a dash of teal

by | Jun 22, 2016 | Digital, NHS stuff | 1 comment

What do china cups, therapy dogs and self-managing teams have in common? Well, quite a bit it turns out… It all began at an Improvement Academy Fellows event some months back where consultant physician Dr Rod Kersh and I had a serendipitous conversation about self-managing teams in healthcare based on a model known as Teal. In his presentation humanity above bureaucracy you can watch Jos de Blok describe how in 2007 he set up a new model of nursing in the Netherlands led by practitioners and co-produced with patients: Back in Doncaster, Rod and his team run a ward for older people with acute medical needs and dementia type illnesses. Their practice is informed by the principles of Teal and grounded in compassion and empathy.  On his ward it’s the small thing that count – such as the this is me information sheets that are part of the medical record, and the photos of staff on the wall accompanied by a this is what people like about me mini-biography. But sometimes it’s the apparently small stuff that can be the toughest to resolve. Rod has been engaged in a valiant battle to replace standard hospital issue plastic cups with china tea cups on his ward. You can read his blog about it here in which he describes the importance of the everyday in engendering humanity: “Person-centred care, where we remember that the patient is a person and, that person is the reason for the existence of the hospital, and our work, where we need to sometimes check ourselves when we slip into modes of process and performance; here the cups...
The next Uber for healthcare

The next Uber for healthcare

by | Jun 12, 2016 | Digital, NHS stuff | 4 comments

‘This app is basically the next Uber for healthcare’ A web search for the phrase uber for healthcare yields around 11,100,000 hits along with a plethora of suggested related searches. Uber has become shorthand for customer convenience and the disruption of established markets. It seems many people are looking for the lucrative uber for healthcare model and it’s a phrase with currency at many digital health events and in numerous articles. This recent Kevin.MD blog post argues that an uber for healthcare will be ‘super convenient, quick and easy, and inexpensive’. A recent commissioned article in the weighty British Medical Journal, entitled Uber for Healthcare asks:   Is it time to reinvent the home visit? … app happy entrepreneurs backed by venture capitalists believe that they can turn back the clock (Hawkes, N. 12 February, 2016).   The idea of a quick and convenient healthcare system that we can access with a swipe of our app while we go about our busy lives is seductive. But should we be questioning more deeply whether we want app happy entrepreneurs backed by venture capitalists disrupting the NHS with uber-style models of healthcare? Relationships or transactions An uberised model of healthcare prioritises transactions over relationships – it elevates convenience, efficiency and accessibility. But arguably healthcare is much more complex than an A to B taxi journey for all but the most simple of ailments. What happens to an uberised model when referrals along a multi-provider care pathway are required or ongoing support to help someone manage multiple long term health conditions? An uber style healthcare model may benefit the generally fit and...