Meeting the needs of Healthcare

Meeting the needs of Healthcare

Healthcare: quality care today, and a healthcare system for tomorrow Like all advanced healthcare systems the NHS is faced with growing pressure from rising expectations and rising demand. Patients needs and expectations are changing, and increasing numbers are enjoying longer life-spans. The combined effects of an aging population and lifestyle choices are resulting in increased prevalence of long-term conditions. Today s generations of patients have grown up with the NHS and demand that services will be both accessible and convenient. They want greater participation in decisions on their healthcare, and they expect services that are adapted to their individual needs. Many are adept at using technology and connectivity to share experiences and to inform their own decisions. The NHS is also leading advances in medical technology and new approaches to care. These provide access to a greater choice of interventions, resulting in improved outcomes and a higher quality of patient experience. They allow patients who used to be hospitalised to be supported in the community. But they can also drive higher costs, or demand increasingly advanced and specialised professional expertise. Today more than ever, health organisations are under pressure to maintain high levels of service while working on tight budgets. With the help of VMware, we were able to make savings and realise efficiency benefits across the entire organisation. We know we can rely on VMware to keep our most mission critical systems running, from A&E to operating theatres. James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Business impact NHS managers are required to deliver the quality of experience that every patient expects, while executing an ambitious agenda designed to accelerate reform, improve accountability and patient outcomes, and maintain tight control over budgets. ICT professionals need to deliver a technology platform that will adapt to structural change at an organisational level, and at the same time support front-line improvement initiatives at the individual team level. The technology platform will need the flexibility to cope with a changing future. In the back office, for example, many NHS organisations are moving towards a shared service model, but first they need to create efficiencies, and simplify existing processes. Improving the patient experience UK healthcare providers have made extensive use of process improvement techniques to change the way that care is delivered. Initiatives led by front-line staff have a lasting effect on working environments, facilitate team working, release more time for patient care, and hence improve both efficiency and the quality of care that is delivered. The patient discharge process is just one example of how improvements can help to reduce the length of stay in hospital, release capacity in the system and save cost, in addition to helping staff to better distribute their workload, reduce waiting times, improve the patient experience, and reduce the incidence of medical complications. Implementing information systems to support improvements in patient care can be particularly demanding for ICT professionals. They need to equip front-line staff with tools to achieve a smooth flow of information between different healthcare professionals, patient families and those outside the healthcare system such as social service providers, and ensure that user interfaces are effective in a front-line working environment. Contributions from Kable MEETING THE NEEDS OF HEALTHCARE / 2

They also need to provide associated business solutions that support a demanding range of patient management and administration functions, interface with other healthcare information systems, and communicate with partner organisations. Successful implementation depends on a smooth transition from legacy systems, and a stable architecture. Solutions based around End User Computing and an agile infrastructure for example mobile clinician feature strongly here. Clinically-led change Ambitious trusts are rethinking aspects of their operations, as they increase focus on the needs of service users and patients, achieve higher quality of patient care, and adapt their response to local needs. These include new ways to handle the pathway of care between hospitals and community services and engage with the public and other stakeholders; changes in the scale and scope of corporate services and the strategy for their estate portfolio, and new approaches to decision making and accountability, such as service-line management led by clinicians. As patients exercise their right to choose providers, each trust will aim to build on different areas of strength and will want to actively manage its performance in these areas. These changes have implications for the way that business and clinical decisions are informed. Managers need information systems they can trust to deliver a reliable service, accurate financial and operational information, and that also adapt to a changing agenda. Business systems that reinforce service excellence, and best-of-breed service specialism are a key feature to coping with an uncertain future. Efficiency and effectiveness in the back office Many NHS organisations know that they are operating below maximum efficiency in their back office operations, and they are exploring reductions in the cost of functions such as HR, finance, procurement, and ICT to release additional resources for patient care. Shared services will make better use of back office resources, but before doing this, trusts should first aim to simplify their local back office processes, and re-engineer back office functions to a common standard. Like other back office functions the ICT function must also be efficient, and inevitably it will need to reduce the cost of operational services. But, ICT professionals also need to ensure that they have the resources and skills to support improvement initiatives, in addition to optimising the return on existing investments by ensuring that these can be adapted to meet future needs. Striving for higher levels of virtualization and automation will increase efficiency and effectiveness, driving resources into key front-line services, and preparing the infrastructure to support change. We have made significant savings as a result of virtualizing, including a 75% decrease in our power costs. Virtualization has also been the foundation for our move to a new cloud infrastructure through which we will deliver IT services to our own users and have the capability to provide services to other NHS trusts. Liverpool Women s NHS Trust Contributions from Kable MEETING THE NEEDS OF HEALTHCARE / 3

Shared back office The optimum size for an efficient back office function is generally judged to be larger than many of today s local NHS back office functions. Apart from being more efficient, increased scale allows larger back-office functions to expand the scope and raise the quality of the services. There are many different ways to increase scale. Trusts that take on additional responsibilities and absorb existing services through reorganisation or restructuring will find opportunities to deliver early savings by eliminating duplication through consolidation of back office functions. Informal collaboration allows neighbouring trusts to each retain a relatively high level of control, and is quick to establish and deliver returns. Increasingly formal arrangements provide a platform that can support more extensive development, and may be required where cooperatives and social enterprises are involved. Outsourcing to a commercial partner can bring external resources and expertise and more fully exploit the potential of scale economies, technology and standardisation. In moving towards shared services it is therefore essential that neither the ICT infrastructure nor the solution portfolio unduly restrict the options that are available to a trust. Careful planning is required to ensure that both can adapt as the approach to shared back office services evolves. Where external service providers are involved they will wish to ensure that contract structures allow their key suppliers to be equally adaptable. A flexible, agile infrastructure built on the key foundation of private cloud technologies will be a first step to offering services for wider consumption, or having those services run elsewhere. No single approach will fit all situations, and requirements will change over time. Contributions from Kable MEETING THE NEEDS OF HEALTHCARE / 4

VMware Solutions VMware Delivers Comprehensive Solutions New Devices and Access Methods for Users App App App App New Cloud-ready Applications App App Existing Datacentres Existing Applications VMware weaves together these new and existing resources into a compliant, manageable, secure whole. End User Computing SaaS Applications Available Capacity From Cloud Computing VMware end-user computing solutions allow you to modernise the traditional desktop, move toward user-centric management and embrace cloud-ready services. Application development VMware delivers the proven VMware Cloud Application Platform and Cloud Foundry to build, run and manage applications for cloud deployment using technologies that are already familiar to development teams. Infrastructure and Management The industry s most complete virtualization platform, VMware vsphere now forms the foundation for building cloud infrastructures for customers across all industries. VMware provides cloud infrastructure to organisations and service providers that enables secure interoperability between private, public and hybrid clouds. Our customer-proven solutions ensure: Efficiency Through Utilisation and Automation VMware solutions help you achieve lower total cost of ownership while minimising unnecessary IT infrastructure investments, management and maintenance resources, and system lock-in. You adopt a more cost-effective, self-managed, dynamically optimised environment for the most efficient delivery of IT services. You gain additional flexibility by developing and deploying applications that can run in your data centre or at an external service provider. You move toward an infrastructure that uses policy-driven management and automation to monitor itself; self-optimising for load and demand on the applications, based on usage. Agility with Control VMware solutions provide easy, self-service access to dramatically simplify IT services provisioning and deployment, so you can respond more quickly to business needs. At the same time, they allow you to put policies in place that implement business and governance requirements, including Business Continuity and DR, giving IT staff the control it needs to minimise business and regulatory risk. Increase Security, Reduce Risk VMware leads the way in security for virtualization, so your policies are always applied to a secure virtual container for your virtual machines, wherever they run. Applications running in a virtual environment can be more secure than in the physical. Freedom of Choice VMware solutions provide you with the flexibility to retain your existing operating system and application stack, yet deploy it internally or externally. You can continue to support traditional systems, while removing many of the headaches associated with them system porting, security patches and more. You also gain more predictable performance. You maintain full control over the availability, reliability, scalability, security and SLAs for all workloads, from enterprise to desktop applications, from the most basic to the most mission-critical. MEETING THE NEEDS OF HEALTHCARE / 5

Leading with Professional Services The VMware transformation journey can help your organisation transition to IT as a Service in three distinct, evolutionary steps: starting by achieving higher degrees of IT production and cost savings, followed by increased reliability and quality of service for critical business applications, and eventually moving to an on-demand approach for consumption of IT as more and more automation capabilities are brought online. Cost Efficiency Quality of Service Business Agility Phase IT Production BusinessProduction IT as a Service Business Value CAPEX OPEX Key Shared resource pools Capabilities Elastic capacity CAPEX OPEX Availability Responsiveness Ze ro -to u ch infrastructure Increased control and service assurance CAPEX OPEX Availability Responsiveness Compliance Service definition Self-service Chargeback Business-Value Approach While each customer s path will be unique, virtualization is essential for enabling this journey. With our solutions, you can begin to reduce IT complexity and enable IT as a Service without throwing away working infrastructure. A Prescriptive Roadmap for Virtualization and IT Transformation Realise the full potential of your virtualized IT infrastructures with a comprehensive transformation plan based on the VMware Professional Services Domain Model. VMware vcloud Accelerator Service Proof of Value Using industry best practices and in-depth experience in virtualization and cloud technologies, we will work with you to rapidly deliver a working, pre-production VMware vcloud computing environment running your applications to demonstrate the value of a VMware vcloud solution for your organisation. Accelerate Your Transition to the Cloud Moving beyond the Proof of Value service, VMware vcloud Professional Services help accelerate your journey to the cloud. Our complete range of services will help you adopt and expand a flexible cloud computing approach that matches infrastructure to demand. Based on our extensive experience helping organisations and service providers build cloud architectures, VMware vcloud Professional Services provide assessment, planning, design, and deployment services for IT infrastructure transformation. About VMware Professional Services VMware Professional Services offer end-to-end consulting services for Cloud Infrastructure and Management, End User Computing and Cloud Application Platform development based on in-depth virtualization expertise, proven best practices, and repeatable delivery methodologies. We help customers realise the full value of virtualization as the foundation for cloud computing faster, and with less risk. Based on best practices from working with thousands of customers and using reliable, repeatable methodologies, our services are designed to accelerate the benefit customers realise from VMware solutions. Regardless of the level of a customer s virtualization maturity or business need, VMware Consulting Services can accelerate the business value of IT transformation to cloud computing through virtualization, with less risk. Let s get going! Contact your VMware Account Manager to get started! To learn more about VMware services and solutions visit us online at www.vmware.co.uk Your Cloud Accelerate IT. Accelerate your Business. VMware UK Limited, Theta Building, Lyon Way, Frimley, Camberley, Surrey, UK GU16 7ER Tel: 08000 327 597 or 0800 882408 Fax: +44 1276 685018 www.vmware.com Copyright 2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. MEETING THE NEEDS OF HEALTHCARE / 6