The successful candidate will understand the NHS digital landscape and assist the PCN with the delivery of transformational projects that develop employee professionalism and ultimately improve patient clinical services.
The Digital Lead will work closely with the PCN Clinical Director, PCN Manager and other PCN Teams as well as the individual practices within the network. You may be required to travel across the sites, but you will be based at a practice within Ashfields Health Centre.
Main duties of the job
This is an exciting role that will lead transformation work across the PCN and use Digital where appropriate to enable the change and maximise the use of the tools available. The Digital and Transformation lead will work with clinical and operational teams within a Primary Care Network (PCN) to improve patient access, staff and patient satisfaction, and the efficiency and sustainability of the PCN and practice services.
The post holder will work closely with staff working at practices and across the PCN to understand current service models, identify challenges, agree priorities for improvement and then support these to be delivered. It is essential for the postholder to liaise with other PCNs Digital and Transformation leads and key individuals within the ICB, including IT / Digital leads and other facilitation resources which may prompt the formation of a supportive network and complement multiple disciplinary team working.
The post holder will lead on planning, use data, Quality Improvement (QI) processes, coordinate and directly support the delivery of transformation activity across the PCN through optimising digital tools, operational processes, pathways, new ways of working and embed transformation and change. The post holder will also support PCN colleagues in identifying costs and financial implications of utilising any digital tools.
About us
SMASH PCN serves the population of Sandbach, Middlewich, Alsager, Scholar Green and Haslington (SMASH). This is a population of approximately 75,000 patients. Part of Cheshire East place, SMASH is an active member of our health economy with a dynamic and forward-thinking approach to working at scale and digital solutions to support population health management and General Practice sustainability. We are looking for an experienced digital lead to join our team and work closely with our digitally focused Clinical Director to drive change and navigate solutions for our practices.
Job responsibilities
The role will include the delivery of a combination of the following responsibilities:
1. Improve adoption and/or optimisation of new and existing digital technologies to enhance patient access and experience.
2. Identify tools to improve decision support and improve workflow optimisation.
3. Identify opportunities to improve the efficiency of clinical and non-clinical processes.
4. Support team members that are involved in the procurement of any new technologies for the PCN, which are agreed with the ICB to ensure compatibility with infrastructure, strategy, SIA, DPIA etc.
5. Build relationships and facilitate collaboration between practices, PCNs and the wider system to support at-scale delivery of care to patients (including shared appointments between practices to aid delivery of enhanced access).
6. Lead an improvement approach to change including building capability for quality improvement within the PCN and system-wide approaches to problem solving.
7. Review and improve the PCN's digital maturity.
8. Use data and insight, and improve data quality, to understand demand, capacity and activity and drive improvements in patient experience of access, operational efficiency including better matching capacity to need, and staff experience at work.
9. Identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
10. Support population health management.
11. Support understanding of the type and intensity of support/training needs of the PCN and coordinate this support, including through OD programmes.
12. Facilitate clinically led innovation and the effective adoption of improvement initiatives, including integrated working at neighbourhood and/or place level to improve access to services for patients.
13. Embed digital processes as a foundation for other ARRS roles working practices.
14. Embed digital processes to support delivery of QOF and IIF.
Digital Access
The post holder will support the wider and/or improved utilisation of digital tools such as:
* Online registrations
* Website use
* App use (NHS App and other available healthcare apps)
* Cloud Telephony (if applicable)
* Business Intelligence tools
This includes reviewing the use of digital tools at a practice and PCN level, as well as identifying and addressing any challenges/inefficiencies that impact on staff workload and patient experience.
Other duties include:
Aligning systems for use of digital tools across the PCN and developing PCN-wide approaches. This includes sharing examples of best practice, promoting the use of NHS App and other healthcare apps and ensuring there is clear messaging on the chosen PCN position for digital tools, whilst ensuring agreement with ICB for compatibility with existing systems and dependency on central ICB resources.
Enabling patients to access digital tools by improving their digital ability through upskilling the multi-disciplinary workforce in the uses of digital tools, so that they can educate patients on better utilisation.
Operational and clinical process optimisation
Identify opportunities to use digital to improve the practices and PCN monitoring of patients remotely.
Maximise the use of clinical decision support tools and templates across pathways to save time and provide improved care.
Identify opportunities to standardise the way care is provided and operational teams work.
Change Management
One of the core objectives of this role could be to support practices and PCNs to embed and optimise the use of technology to transform and deliver ongoing improvement to services.
The role will require experience in business and service improvement with expertise in transformational change and a thorough understanding of general practice systems and processes.
This expertise will be used to:
1. Drive the planning and prioritisation of digital changes that will improve the delivery of care and improve patient and staff experience in the practices within the PCN.
2. Ensure all change is ultimately focused on improving services for patients.
3. Build relationships across the PCN to develop consensus for improvements and to ensure business and clinical staff are fully engaged throughout the process of selection, implementation, and deployment of change.
4. Work alongside practices to understand current challenges and identify solutions. This includes providing hands-on support with implementing and sustaining agreed changes.
5. Support practices and staff to effectively use relevant technology systems and products to enable improvement.
6. Advise on innovative opportunities and support practices to maximise benefits from innovation, through the sharing of learning and best practice.
7. Identify and support with training and development, with opportunities for upskilling staff to become digital champions.
8. Develop and manage an overall digital transformation plan for the PCN that also supports the ICB digital transformation strategy, including identifying interdependencies, managing risks, considering the potential impacts on the wider organisation, and determining resource requirements.
9. Provide specialist training, advice and support on key programmes of work and own role/responsibilities where necessary, whilst avoiding duplication with any central ICB training/resources.
Analytics and Data Management
The role will require an individual with experience of using data to identify trends, drive improvement and assess impact. These skills will be used to:
1. Review existing datasets to analyse the utilisation of digital tools at a practice and PCN level, e.g., online consultation and NHS app usage.
2. Use practice and PCN data from clinical systems to aid with population health insights, improving access and appointment planning, improving efficiency through reviewing demand, activity and utilisation of appointments and how patients consume the services, and workforce planning.
3. Use the information and dashboards available to support understanding of challenges of certain working practices, identify possible solutions and track the impacts of changes that have been made.
4. Use data to track and assess the impact of changes made to operational processes, and to track trends and developments over time.
5. Ability to interpret qualitative and quantitative information from a range of sources and present it concisely to stakeholders to increase their understanding of operational challenges.
6. Carry out timely and accurate information analysis and reporting on agreed areas of portfolio, ensuring outcomes are evaluated.
7. Liaise with system suppliers to optimise their development of tools to support transformation.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Degree or other evidence of academic study, research or significant initiatives in transformation change using digital as an enabler.
Experience
* Experience of working on projects, including successfully delivering change and improvement programmes.
* Previous experience in project management and planning.
* Experience of interacting with internal and external stakeholders at a variety of levels and across functions, managing expectations and ensuring high levels of satisfaction.
* Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to clearly communicate complex issues to a variety of audiences.
* Ability to work effectively under pressure, within strict time constraints and must be able to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced, time-sensitive environment.
* An interest in and understanding healthcare and health issues in London.
* An interest in improving the patients experience/care/safety through training from audits or quality improvement projects.
* Experience of championing diversity and inclusion and promoting actions to make improvements to the experience of diverse groups.
* Familiarity with and technical knowledge of IT products such as primary clinical systems and digital tools:
* Primary clinical system (EMIS, SystmOne or Vision)
* Maximising functionality of core IT systems
* Use of Clinical Data Entry Templates / Protocols / Pre-sets
* Online consultation tools
* SMS / communication tools
* New patient online registration
* ICE Radiology/Pathology
* Automation
* MS Teams & OneDrive
* Microsoft Office
* Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS)
* NHS App (NHS Login) & other apps
* Website Optimisation (both public facing and potentially intranet)
* Workforce / practice management tools (including cloud based)
* Staff IT induction / onboarding process
* Dashboard performance tools
* Video consultation tools
* Remote Access
* Gov.uk Notify (or similar) services to help with digital exclusion (e.g. bulk letter sending)
* Care Home information
* Urgent Care Plan, London Care Record & other local Patient Record Systems
* Social Media e.g. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Tiktok
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