Case studies

Background

North Bristol NHS Trust is a large acute trust based in the South West of England. The trust provides care from two large acute hospitals – Frenchay and Southmead, and from a variety of smaller locations, including Cossham, Orchard View, Riverside Unit and other community-based sites. The trust provides medical and surgical services to the local population of North Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, and maternity and paediatric services for a local population of approximately 500,000. The trust currently has 72 rotas and 420 junior and trust doctors.

 

The Challenge

In 2001, only 12% of the rotas were compliant with the New Deal. This meant that the trust was suffering from significant financial penalties. It was also very difficult to model the financial impact of the doctors’ rotas: how much it would cost to make them compliant, and whether savings would be achieved by this increased compliance. There was also a worry that the trust had no way of assessing EWTD compliance and rotas had to be compliant with the EWTD 2004 target of 58 hours. To add to these issues the analysis of doctors’ monitoring data was poor and inconsistent.

 

The Solution

The trust made a positive decision to improve their rota management and part of this initiative was to implement MRM-Live for Junior Doctors (formerly known as RotaWorks). Dr Claudia Grigereit, the Medical Workforce & Development Manager, was able to have all her rotas in one database. With MRM-Live she was able to build and test alternative rotas quickly, and assess their New Deal and EWTD compliance. The Zircadian support team was always available at the end of the phone to help.

 

The Benefits

By December 2005, New Deal compliance had improved to 99%. The trust can now easily calculate the amount of net yearly savings. Claudia says that “MRM-Live has allowed the trust to make net savings of £4.4 million a year. Not only that but it allows us to work much more efficiently in Human Resources”. The trust has also been able to assess their rotas against the EWTD regulations. This means they now have a good idea of where their rotas are in terms of EWTD compliance which means they have been able to implement some robust action plans to achieve EWTD compliance in August 2009.

 

MRM-Live (formerly known as RotaWorks) provided the trust with a valuable tool to better manage and take control of their junior doctors rotas. In June 2006, North Bristol’s HR Director Alistair McDougall said, “I know that in MRM-Live, Claudia has the very best tool in helping the trust keep its rota costs to a minimum. The trust has benefited from saving many hundred times the cost of the licence.”