Where did this project come from?
Cancer data is shared within the trust in various forms, with different criteria and caveats depending on the sources and audience. It is subject to a lot of scrutiny and change, as patients’ information gets updated while people work. Some data is also received from external sources, either published on a schedule or ad-hoc.
Several of our reports were inherited through a successive series of analysts. Some used data sources which had changed since the reports were first created, and other reports were no longer being used but were still being reproduced each week for the classic reason of ‘this is what’s always been done’. This led to discrepancies between reports and confusion in understanding what data meant, and a lack of reliable single truth, as well time being wasted doing work which nobody was using.
What did you decide your aim statement to be?
To reduce the number of outlets and variations in cancer data within the trust and decrease out of date or “old” data by December 2023”
How did you diagnose the problem? We assessed the sources used for gathering data, analysed the processing of the data, reviewed the frequency of the reports, and how the data was being displayed and to whom. We engaged our stakeholders and investigated their actual data needs.
What changes were you able to test from this diagnostic work?
From our diagnoses work, we were able to create some automated processes, reviewing and refining them in ongoing PDSA cycles. Where possible we changed data sources to acquire data from live databases so that data was kept as up to date as possible. We consolidated reports where appropriate to reduce variations in the same figures. We stopped sending out data that wasn’t being used. We’re also looking at creating a data dashboard with up-to-date data so users can self-serve – this is currently in development.
What sorts of results are you seeing now?
The number of weekly reports has been reduced by 33%, and the time spent updating them has reduced by 60%! We’ve been able to invest the time saved through automating data acquisition and processing in other tasks, where our attention can add more value. Our data quality has improved now we are acquiring data directly from the database. Better consistency has reduced confusion over figures, and up-to-date data helps staff to see potential issues earlier.
What are your next steps with the project?
We are looking to further develop, modernise and consolidate our dashboards using Microsoft’s Power suite (Power BI, PowerApps, Power Automate). We want to improve accessibility of new dashboards by liaising with BI team and overcoming obstacles such as licencing. We’d like to have better integration with BI’s COGNOS data warehouse to enhance our ability to analyse and monitor demand and capacity for outpatient services, and we’d like to work with the MDT team to improve their ability to track patients and escalate concerns to the right people as quickly as possible.
What have been your key learnings?
This project has led us to develop new skills, and the ones we already had! One learning that sums up so much of this project is that just because something was done before, doesn’t mean that it should be done that way forever.
