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Acuity & Dependency Audit Tool

Skill-mixing is an important part of workforce planning within the NHS and is crucial if cost-effective and appropriate care is to be delivered to all patients and there is a growing body of research evidence which shows that nurse staffing levels make a difference to patient outcomes (mortality and adverse events), patient experience, quality of care and the efficiency of care delivery.

Historically, a range of methods have existed which have enabled staffing levels to be planned at a local level. In the past, the systems have varied according to the amount of detail considered, from crude ‘top-down’ ratios that relate staffing to numbers of beds or total population, through to the more sophiticated systems requiring detailed data on the nature and volume of care needs (patient dependency) and a breakdown of how nursing activity of different team members varies in relation to this.

The Synbiotix Acuity and Dependency tool has been designed in direct partnership with healthcare organisations to meet all the needs and financial challenges faced by each and every organisation in their quest to increase productivity, maintain their cost effective and value for money approach to services, whilst also assisting them in improving their standard and quality of care to achieve better outcomes for patients.

The Synbiotix Acuity and Dependency Tool will enable organisations to:

Measure the acuity and dependency levels of existing patients (using the nationally agreed system for defining levels of acuity and dependency) at any specified frequency
Monitor and record funded establishment staffing levels per shift as agreed by organisation
Measure and compare actual staffing levels per shift (using nationally recognised mutlipliers for staffing levels according to patient acuity levels) with recommended staffing levels calculated by the system
Be automatically alerted when there is a pre-agreed/defined % shortfall or surplus of actual staffing levels compared with the calculated, recommended staffing levels

Measure, monitor and record all workflow activities, clinical area events and any workload associated with the clinical area which may require a staffing resource
Associate contributable factors to staffing levels and view how these factors affect staffing, e.g. Norovirus outbreak, C.diff outbreak, seasonal trends in graphical formats
Validate staffing requirements according to measured patient acuity and dependency
Use information generated by the system to build a robust approach to workforce planning

Features of the system include:

Pre-defined ( by organisation) all data variables which need to be collected (e.g. No. of beds, type of shifts, workflow activity types, staffing types / grades/temporary
Local configuration of reporting periods (daily, weekly monthly or periodic data capture) with ability to change periods
Pre-loaded definitions of patient acuity and dependency levels
Automatic calculations of the patient acuity and dependency levels (using built-in generator)
User-friendly designed data capture sheets for clinical areas, automatically generated from system
Fast, efficient data capture process which can be used by clinical and non-clinical trained staff
Ability to view non-submission of data in organizational dashboards
Ability to add in free text notes, comments
Ability to add in all associated and contributable factors which influence requirement for manpower resources and additional staffing levels
Automatic calculation of numbers of patients at each acuity level and recommended staffing establishment requirements to meet the needs of these patients and immediate publication of all data in traffic light coloured scorecard / dashboards

Summary view of ward / clinical area data both in tabular format and graphical representation
Dashboard tables and graphs at organisational and clinical area level exportable into Excel and Word format
Ability to set alert status at varying percentages, when shortfall or surplus of actual staffing numbers are occurs (e.g. 10% below recommended staffing establishment)
Email, alert and prompt notification system for all clinical areas with escalation capability and facility
Ability to configure the system at the local department or organisational level (including full administration features, management of users and passwords, setting alert thresholds, adding, changing or deleting measurement variables/ associated contributory factors/staffing types/shift patterns
Ability to add-on multiple modules
Full User manual, training and support provided