Monitoring should
be a positive for both Trusts and doctors... Unfortunately the practicalities
of Monitoring mean that the benefits are often lost.
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| To discuss your Monitoring issues, please contact Henry. |
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Call us now
020 8946 8199 |
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Monitoring should be a positive
for both Trusts and doctors: it gives Trusts the ability to benchmark their
plans against reality and an opportunity to cut the excess costs of wrong
bandings in rotas. Simultaneously it gives doctors their opportunity to
communicate what they are doing, and when they are doing it, to ensure that
they are paid correctly.
Unfortunately the practicalities of Monitoring mean that the benefits are often
lost. Many Trusts conduct their Monitoring by creating paper diary cards and
distributing them for doctors to fill in. By placing special return 'bins'
around the Trust, the Medical Staffing teams create an easy route for doctors
to return their completed diary cards. However, problems can quickly occur with
this process.
The most commonly encountered problem with Monitoring is that too few diary
cards are returned. With 75% return rates required for each exercise to be
complete, this results in an expensive and time-consuming rerun of the exercise
which can also create issues with the doctors concerned. In our work we have
seen return rates ranging from 10% up to 95%.
The second biggest issue for Trusts today is diary cards being returned too
late. Successful Monitoring relies on the quick return of data so that Medical
Staffing can respond to the information and take action if necessary. Late
diary cards can create impotent Monitoring exercises where the exercise is
completed but the benefits can't be realised. In our experience we have
encountered diary cards being returned immediately and up to 2 months later!
The third major issue of Monitoring is the time and expense involved in
collecting, translating and entering the data from the diary cards. We have
seen the Medical Staffing time required for each Monitoring exercise vary from
7 days to 21 days.
To see how we have worked with Trusts up and down the country to solve these issues
click here. |
