Additionally, critical systems such as ESR, Allocate, Trac, and General Ledger, which manage employee records, rostering, and finance, operate in silos, hindering the ability to generate a single, consistent view of patients, workforce, and other key data domains.
Challenges: Manual processes and fragmented reporting
For this Trust, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical role of data and analytics in improving healthcare delivery. Like many organisations across the NHS, they recognised the need to leverage technology to enhance communication among health and care professionals and ensure patients could access the care they need quickly and efficiently.
With the ambition to modernise their data infrastructure, the Trust prioritised consolidating diverse data sources, including clinical systems, pathway data, and workforce management platforms. Their key goals included streamlining employee records, improving departmental finance management, and optimising cancer treatment pathways by creating a unified, consistent view of patient data.
However, achieving these goals proved challenging due to fragmented systems across the organisation:
- Static, manually created reports were slow to produce and difficult to use effectively.
- Extracting information from multiple systems caused delays and limited actionable insights.
- Manual integration processes hindered agility, consuming valuable time and resources while making it difficult to respond to operational demands.
These challenges highlighted the urgent need for a modern, integrated solution capable of providing a single source of truth for patients, employees, and other critical master data.
Solution: Scalable MDM with early impacts
“Think big, start small, scale fast”
The Trust understood the need to demonstrate the value of improved data management quickly while ensuring scalability for the future. By starting with a smaller, focused use case, they were able to prove success early on, paving the way for more ambitious, data-driven initiatives across the organisation.
To support this approach, Amplifi introduced Semarchy’s xDM Master Data Management solution, which allowed for an exploratory, ‘fail forward’ methodology. The Trust initially targeted three use cases, each addressing distinct challenges:
Employee churn and agency spend
By creating a single, centralised view of employee data, the Trust would be able to tackle issues around employee turnover and agency reliance. This included tracking employees who had left and rejoined the Trust, providing a clearer picture of staffing needs and spend.
IT assets and licenses
The project uncovered inefficiencies within IT systems, such as outdated equipment and excessive spending on individual software licenses. By consolidating data, Amplifi worked with the Trust to identify opportunities to optimise resource allocation and achieve significant cost savings.
Cancer Pathways Transformation
The most substantial impact came from transforming the Trust’s cancer pathways. By integrating data into a single, transparent view, staff across departments were able to access, utilise, and update information seamlessly. This not only improved collaboration but also ensured patients received timely and efficient treatment.
Results: Improved care, clinician efficiency and data clarity
“This will save three minutes per patient – and we have thousands of patients!”
The transformation of cancer pathways at the NHS Trust has delivered measurable, life-changing improvements for both patients and clinicians. By integrating seven key data sets, including patient details, treatment plan timelines, and adherence to national targets, the Trust achieved a unified, transparent view of the patient journey. This clarity allowed clinicians to pinpoint where patients were on their treatment cycle, identify upcoming actions.
As Guy Bradshaw, Consulting Director at Amplifi stated: “We’ve built up a really strong picture of the targets and where people are on the treatment cycle, with the ability to drill down into detail; key facts such as surgery dates, patients’ medication and critical next steps- all in once central location for clinicians to utilise.”
Operationally, the improvements have also unlocked significant time savings for clinicians. By replacing manual processes and consolidating fragmented data into a single, reliable source, the Trust has freed up valuable clinical time.
The Trust's Cancer Manager commented: “This will save three minutes per patient – we have thousands of patients, so for clinicians this will allow them to focus on providing care to more patients, rather than manual collation of data across multiple sources, so it’s all in one place for them.”
This streamlined approach not only improves efficiency but also enhances the quality of care delivered to patients. The success of this initiative provides a strong foundation for scaling the model to other critical areas within the Trust, demonstrating the power of integrated data to drive operational excellence and better patient outcomes.
Amplifi’s deep understanding of public sector complexities allowed them to address significant data issues, such as fragmented systems, manual reconciliation, and inconsistencies in reporting. The NHS Trust are now able to benefit from more streamlined processes, offering reliable, timely information to key stakeholders.
This transformation took place against a backdrop of austerity, operational pressures, and the cultural complexities of a large NHS organisation. Despite these challenges, the Trust achieved remarkable progress in harnessing data for good, delivering results that directly impact both operations and patient care.
If these challenges sound familiar, and you're looking to master any data domain inside your NHS Trust to increase efficiency, reduce spend and improve patient outcomes, our team are here to help. Get in touch with our data experts to start a conversation about how we can support your journey.
