11th April 2011
COMMENT: How healthcare IT solutions will be key to helping new GP commissioners make evidence-based decisions
For the NHS to serve patients properly and sustainably, commissioning decisions must be far more evidence-based, according to TOM MULHERN, founder of healthcare business intelligence solutions provider, Ardentia. Here, he explains why, for this is to happen, emerging GP consortia must move fast to gain a far better understanding of the quality, value and outcomes offered by competing solutions
THE emergence of GP consortia as the purchasers of most NHS treatment should mean that quality of care is scrutinised more closely than ever before. But, from what we have seen so far, it is not a foregone conclusion that this will happen. Indeed, the calls we have taken from consortia representatives reflect considerable uncertainty about what IT tools and data they need if they are to commission good care at the right price. The people we are speaking to are among the most proactive in the sector, so if they are feeling poorly informed, the problems may be even greater elsewhere.
If consortia are going to be sustainable and effective commissioners, one of the basic things they have to do is ensure they have healthcare IT that lets them make apples-with-apples comparisons between providers. Unless they manage to do this from the outset, it will be immensely difficult to find the huge efficiency savings being demanded of them without compromising patient services.
The good news, though, is that there are ever more tools out there which allow this to be done. The tough part will be for newly-formed consortia, with enormous demands being placed upon them, to be able to identify which solutions, and what data, is of the right quality and value.