Title: The redesign practices and capabilities of NHS Trusts in England: a snapshot study

Authors: Paul Walley, Juliet Rayment, Matthew Cooke

Addresses: Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. ' University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK; Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7 Al, UK. ' University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK; Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7 Al, UK

Abstract: The ability of any healthcare system to improve outcomes for patients through the use of information technology or through process improvement depends very much on the implementation of process redesign methodologies. In this paper, the redesign capabilities of 29 UK National Health Service (NHS) Trusts are assessed to gain an insight into the current situation within the NHS as a whole. It was found that very few individual organisations possessed internal capability to redesign processes effectively. Furthermore, in many organisations, there was little integration of redesign and improvement strategy with the strategy of the organisation as a whole. Those organisations that were successful had probably developed a capability over many years. Some Trusts had performance levels poor enough to require emergency measures to remedy the situation. These sites had actively recruited people with skills to introduce a redesign capability. The paper discusses the barriers to the development of a redesign capability.

Keywords: clinical systems improvement; healthcare management; process redesign; NHS Hospital Trusts; UK; United Kingdom; England; National Health Service; process improvement; redesign capabilities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHTM.2009.030455

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 2009 Vol.10 No.4/5, pp.340 - 359

Published online: 16 Dec 2009 *

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