I’ve been reading about a slime mould called Physarum Polycephalum. Bear with me, I realise my choice in reading matter might not sound delectable!
Physarum Polycephalum forms networks which, for example, find the shortest pathway between different food sources. This is a single cell organism that has no neural circuitry. At least that’s what the experts say, I don’t know any personally.
Ants are also experts at finding the shortest or most efficient route between two locations (again, its normally food related). Google it – there are videos aplenty.
So, what has all this talk of insects and slime got to do with our work in General Practice?
Well I recently spent time in a few practices looking at how much of the day to day work that passes through General Practice is following the shortest, most efficient route from A to Z?
The answer unsurprisingly is not much – this is definitely not a criticism of the way these excellent practices are managed but more a realisation that those closest to the processes find it hard to see ways of improving things. If we look at our workflow pathways for example, I’d wager that many practices can make huge time and resource savings by choosing a more appropriate path for each item type that is work-flowed.
I’m not suggesting we use pheromones, or indeed, slime trails. I’m suggesting we put some time into looking at each item type that comes into our practices (discharge letters, results and reports, Firearms requests, letters from patients or relatives…..the list is long!) and really think hard about who needs to see that document before it is filed. Does everything need to be seen by a GP? I think we’ll find that the answer to that question is ‘No’. How can we use other members of our team to make the workflow of documents more efficient, whilst obviously ensuring patient safety is paramount?
We have Pharmacists, ANPs, Coders, Medical Secretaries, to name only a few of the professional skills available to us. Let’s use those skills to optimise our internal workflow in Practice and free our GPs up for work that is specific to their skills.
Practices sometimes find it hard to ask others to critically look at their processes, however my view is that this is a crucial element in improving efficiency and profitability as well as the real benefit to our staff in making their roles more meaningful.
By Alison Yates, Senior Programme Manager
