Transforming Success: The Power of Pre-Project Collaboration
By Vicky Morley, Senior Clinical Advisor
The NHS, like healthcare systems worldwide, faces significant challenges due an ageing population and rising multimorbidity. These factors place considerable strain on hospital capacity, affecting both bed availability and workforce requirements.
Healthcare technology offers a substantial opportunity to bolster NHS capacity. The 2024 Spring Budget highlighted technology as ‘central’ to achieving the ambitions outlined in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (2023), positioning it as an essential enabler to free up clinicians’ time to care(1). All too frequently, however, the development and deployment of technology are driven by suppliers and procurement processes rather than by the needs, preferences and aspirations of the NHS workforce itself.
To break this trend, what strategies can effectively adopt technology that addresses workforce requirements and enhances service delivery? A key success factor is ensuring staff are active participants in signalling demand and collaborating on the development and implementation of technological solutions from the outset through pre-project collaboration.
Understanding before Acting
Before commencing software design and development, it is crucial to clearly identify current challenges, understand how the target workforce operates, and evaluate whether implementation will genuinely add value.
This is where pre-project collaboration proves beneficial because, unlike traditional approaches that rush to implement solutions, it involves taking time to understand the current system, engage stakeholders, and develop tailored, evidence-based solutions.
Working with customers, pre-project collaboration thoroughly investigates the organisation (or department) to gather information on objectives, challenges, resources, and current workflows. This deeper focus enables healthcare organisations to pinpoint improvement areas and develop targeted initiatives that align strategically with the organisation's needs and long-term goals(2).
Consider, for example, communication and collaboration strategies within the NHS, which are fundamental to high quality patient care. According to a Health Foundation survey in 2024, professional-to-professional communication tools were identified by NHS staff as top solutions for maximising time-saving opportunities(1).
Consequently, technologies supporting clinical, operational, and administrative tasks through improved inter-professional communication and coordination have been recognised for their potential to boost NHS productivity and release more time for patient care. Solutions such as Columna Flow, which streamline hospital workflows for improved and cost-efficient patient care demonstrate how pre-project collaboration can identify IT solutions that add genuine value to current working practices while simultaneously improving patient flow.
The Collaborative Advantage
Collaborating with healthcare partners at the pre-project stage offers several benefits:
Effective planning is enhanced by accurately identifying issues upfront to better understand potential solutions. Gaining insights into the customer’s goals, visions, and priorities aids in clarifying their organisational objectives.
Identifying potential issues early and uncovering hidden inefficiencies allows for proactive problem-solving before project implementation begins.
The pre-project phase provides an ideal opportunity to engage subject matter experts and key personnel to gain deeper insights. Involving internal specialists early maximises the benefits of their expertise and familiarity with the challenges to be addressed.
Aligning stakeholder expectations enhances engagement and understanding of current challenges. This approach ensures that solution design decisions are made based on facts and data rather than assumptions.
By employing a focused deep-dive approach during pre-project collaboration, more effective solutions can be proposed. This leads to the development of targeted interventions that truly align with organisational goals and are informed by prior successes or recent investigations.
Proper pre-project assessment ensures resources are allocated efficiently, preventing wastage and maximising return on investment.
The power of clinical and operational assessments
Clinical and operational assessments serve as valuable tools in pre-project collaboration methodology. These assessments involve conducting a situational analysis of current processes, including following the workflows of staff and patients and engaging in informal interviews or surveys with relevant personnel.
This method allows for:
- Thorough review of existing workflow performance
- Identification of challenges or issues
- Highlighting gaps between current and desired service provision
- Finding opportunities to introduce customised solutions that enhance patient and healthcare flows
By examining the nature, urgency, and priority of organisational needs, clinical and operational assessments provide an understanding of potential improvements. This can be further supported through proof-of-concept demonstrations of software designed to maximise hospital flows, providing tangible evidence of how implementing change can transform operations.
This collaborative approach fosters better engagement, builds trust, and creates a stable platform for developing the future project's scope with focused aims and objectives(3).
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References
- The Health Foundation (2024). Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/briefings/which-technologies-offer-the-biggest-opportunities-to-save-time-in (accessed 4 February 2025)
- Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) (2011). Available at: https://www.hqip.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/hqip-guide-for-clinical-audit-research-and-service-review.pdf (accessed 4 February 2025)
- NHS Service Improvement Guide (2014). Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/improvement-hub/wp-content/uploads/sites/44/2011/06/service_improvement_guide_2014.pdf (accessed 4 February 2025)
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