McKesson UK, the trusted healthcare technology solutions and services provider, announced that East Midlands' commissioning services organisation EMPACT (East Midlands Procurement and Commissioning Transformation) has selected InterQual to provide evidence-based guidelines assessment across the region's PCTs, acute trusts and community hospitals. EMPACT has commenced a rapid roll-out of InterQual as part of regional utilisation review programme across the East Midlands with a series of snapshot utilisation reviews, which will assist local healthcare organisations in identifying bottlenecks in the system. These findings will enable PCTs to align and redesign services where appropriate to ensure patients receive the right care, in the right place and at the right time.
With the NHS undergoing significant reform and healthcare organisations required to deliver significant efficiency savings, EMPACT is supporting local healthcare economies across the region in utilising technology to identify where InterQual could be used to deliver efficiency savings and identify a clinical evidence base for transforming services whilst ensuring best practice and high-quality patient-centred care across the region.
EMPACT's utilisation review team are working with McKesson to support implementation of snapshot utilisation reviews with progression to permanent point of care use of InterQual by front line staff on a daily basis. Peter Huskinson, Director of Commissioning Services at EMPACT, comments, "We selected McKesson due to their knowledge and experience of delivering high quality solutions to the NHS, as well as the track record of InterQual not only internationally but specifically within the UK. InterQual can be transferred and utilised across the whole care spectrum providing powerful information to the commissioners of today and for the GP commissioners of the future. EMPACT is able to support the changing landscape of the NHS and will continue to deliver intelligent and evidence-based changes in partnership with McKesson, enabling consistency in high quality care and reorganising services centred around the patient."
Huskinson continues, "Through the use of EMPACT's services in collaboration with McKesson's robust InterQual evidence-based care tool, we aim to have a continuous flow of patient-level data to support clinical decision-making and ensure each care setting is appropriate to the individual patient. We are currently working with PCTs and acute trusts across the region initially focusing on emergency admissions at Nottinghamshire and Lincoln, ambulatory care in Chesterfield and intermediate care at Derby. By implementing InterQual we aim to reduce inappropriate hospital admissions, minimise clinical variance and any inconsistencies in practice across the region, as well as support transformation and service redesign where required."
Barbara Brady, Consultant in Public Health, who played a significant role in the evaluation of the solution and service delivered collaboratively by McKesson and EMPACT, adds, "Currently we don't have sufficient data to understand, for example, how many acute admissions didn't meet inpatient criteria. Access to this level of information through InterQual will help inform clinicians on the most appropriate care setting for the patient in question whether that’s emergency care, acute care, intermediate care or treatment at home."
Matthew Hunt, Director of Care Management at McKesson, comments "We are delighted that EMPACT have selected InterQual to provide evidence-based guidelines assessment across the East Midlands region. The power of InterQual lies in its rich repository of World Class Clinical content. InterQual has been refined and proven over 30 years and benefits from a rigorous development cycle that is underpinned by a systematic, critical assessment of the latest in medical evidence (37% of which is derived outside of the USA) and validated by an independent panel of 800 clinical experts. As a result, InterQual criteria have a level of credibility and integrity that cannot be found anywhere else. Partnering with EMPACT allows us to deploy the technology at scale and pace, with shared learning from and support to each local implementation."
Gill Collinson, Director of Engagement and Executive Nurse at NHS Derby City, comments, "Clinicians are engaged at an early stage in each local implementation and the interest and commitment from clinical staff member is essential as we continue to move the project forward. EMPACT has been running a series of clinical engagement sessions which have been a resounding success and the healthcare organisations across the region are eager to roll-out the solution and undergo assessment. The interest and commitment from clinical staff is essential as we continue to move the project forward."
David Sharp, Chief Executive at NHS Derbyshire County, concludes, "The snapshot utilisation review process will also help each Trust deepen their understanding of the local healthcare system and set achievable goals for change. EMPACT will be working closely with the commissioners, managers, clinicians and with McKesson to help define and deliver their objectives. The utilisation review and evidence-based care tool will assist organisations in the transformation of patient care services throughout the East Midlands, delivering best practice and appropriate care to the 4.3m local population."
About EMPACT
EMPACT was established in 2010 to support commissioners across the East Midlands health economies, working with a wide range of partners as a joint venture funded by the region's PCTs with support from NHS East Midlands. EMPACT's role is to deliver Specialist Support to local commissioners including in Business Intelligence, Healthcare Market Development, Procurement Support, and Contract and System Management.
EMPACT's remit is "Collaborative Impact for Improving Health". It supports the adoption and specification of best practice and enables commissioners to access best practice to achieve spread and consistency with appropriate localisation. It applies business intelligence tools and comparative analytics for commissioners, deploy Innovative commissioning technologies and act as a clear front door for commercial innovators as well as delivering collaborative projects to reform specific sectors of healthcare in response to local needs and priorities.
About McKesson UK
McKesson, the trusted healthcare technology solutions and services provider, has operated in the UK since 1991 and has a dedicated 500 strong workforce delivering to virtually every NHS organisation as well as to a number of other public and private sector organisations. As operators of the world's largest integrated HR and Payroll system - the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) - McKesson pays 7% of the working population in England and Wales, a workforce of more than 1.4 million NHS employees.
McKesson UK is a subsidiary of McKesson Corporation, which currently ranks 14th on the FORTUNE 500. McKesson is the longest-operating company in healthcare today, with over 175 years experience. Globally, McKesson employs more than 32,000 staff providing information technology, pharmaceuticals, pharmacy automation and disease management solutions to support healthcare delivery in a number of countries. Throughout the world, McKesson is a company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care.