ADASS & IMPOWER roundtable: The Age of Intermediate Care
ADASS & IMPOWER roundtable: The Age of Intermediate
Reflections from our recent roundtable with ADASS and colleagues from Royal Colleges
Fixing the health and care system requires more than just addressing challenges within hospitals. Our focus is on navigating the complexity between the NHS and care services, in order to deliver better outcomes that cost less.
The challenge
We believe that the overarching aim for health and care systems should be about maximising wellbeing and independence, and allowing people to live ‘ordinary lives’ closer to their homes and communities. For that to happen, a person’s needs should be addressed by the entire system. However, while there is a lot of fluidity, health and care are often set up as a series of silos. Focusing on what happens within hospitals, and how that work can be done better, more efficiently and at lower cost, cannot by itself maximise wellbeing and independence.
Our approach
Our focus is on improving the outcomes that matter most, by taking a practical approach to complexity. That starts by avoiding hospital admissions in the first place. Where admissions are necessary, people should be discharged safely and supported to settle back at home, avoiding readmissions.
Leaders within the health and care system are often forced to frame problems too narrowly and only deal with the aspects of care that they directly control. Effective working in complex systems requires a mindset shift – towards a focus on outcomes and working across organisational and system boundaries – and tools that make it easier to manage complexity and produce lasting, positive change. Our EDGEWORK approach provides both, and enables our partners to:
We focus on applying EDGEWORK in three main areas:
Our approach not only results in better outcomes for people using the health and care systems, but also supports an improved professional and clinician experience, with a more manageable workload. Our team members have sat on both sides of the interface, appreciate the sensitivities involved, and know how to make it work better.
How we are different from other health consultancies
Our focus is on the problems that sit outside of the hospital which have dogged systems for years. Our reputation is based on our ability to solve those problems and deliver change at scale.
Working in partnership with teams in the NHS, across local government, and the voluntary and community sector, we have defined, identified and delivered better outcomes for neighbourhoods, places and systems.
To maximise independence and improve outcomes, a person’s needs should be addressed by the entire health and care system. However, while there is a lot of fluidity, health and care are often set up as a series of silos. Our unique EDGEWORK approach enables organisations to make the required mindset shift – towards a focus on outcomes and working across organisational and system boundaries – and provides the tools that make this easier.
Our work in health and care has one core focus area:
Supporting health and care systems to help people to live well, independently and at home for as long as possible.
Get in touch if you’d like to discuss the challenges your organisation is facing.