Our work on asthma
In January 2011 NHS Improvement called for expressions of interest from NHS organisation who would be undertaking service improvement in their asthma services within the next year.
We wanted to hear from people who were looking at any of the following areas in the asthma pathway:
- Diagnosis and medicines optimisation
- Transforming acute care
- Chronic disease management
We were also interested in hearing from organisations who were taking an integrated approach to asthma care.
Seven sites were chosen to work with us and they started their projects in May 2011.
They are working with us for one year (until May 2012) using a method of improvement called the ‘Model for Improvement’ to meet their specific aims and targets.
This involves:
- Defining the patient pathway – normally through process mapping and patient and public engagement work – to understand the patient journey and identify gaps, wastage and duplication in processes
- Understanding the current service – through analysis of ‘baseline’ data from the previous year on activity, looking at costs e.g. medications, and demand and capacity (where appropriate)
- Setting a timely, realistic and achievable goal for the improvement work e.g. reducing admissions by 10%, and getting a project group together with buy-in from stakeholders and support from an executive-level sponsor
- Testing small-scale innovation using a PDSA cycle (plan, do, study, act)
- Evaluating the project as they progress
Case studies and learning from the mid-way point in the project cycle were featured in an Emerging learning publication in March 2012.
Links to more pages:
What is asthma?
Why is asthma important?
The seven asthma sites
What are we doing in asthma care?
Patient and public engagement in our work
Resources
For more information, please contact Hannah Wall, National Improvement Lead for Asthma, hannah.wall@improvement.nhs.uk or call on 07920 845 437.