We introduced an electronic dynamic purchasing system, which streamlined the process for purchasing care home placements.  This allowed for significant efficiency savings within the system with over 1900 patients being placed and the time taken to procure a continuing health care bed being halved.

Background​

Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is a growth area in the NHS. In Staffordshire, it increased by 13 per cent from 2013-16. Procurement of CHC has historically been made by spot purchasing with little contractual management, limited qualitative measurement and no control over price.

Action​

We worked with all six CCGs in Staffordshire to introduce the adam electronic dynamic purchasing system (DPS) to replace spot purchasing of care home placements. The system went live in February 2016 and was the first DPS to be implemented in the field of CHC. It is based on an open framework/fair market approach. Only suppliers that have passed both qualitative and financial criteria are able to bid for new placements. 

The system includes:

• tools for contract management 
• automated service agreements and billing 
• one weekly consolidated invoice per CCG, as opposed to one invoice per patient. 

Impact

By streamlining the process, adam has given clinicians more time to spend with patients. The system provides more assurance regarding quality, and patients and their families benefit from the process being quicker. For commissioners, there is improved market management and development, while providers benefit from fair market opportunity, clarity of requirements, transparency and automated payments.

By January 2018:

• more than 1900 patients had been placed via the system 
• time taken to procure a CHC bed had halved 
• 208 providers were enrolled on the system – delivering a more sustainable and robust marketplace 
• on a like-for-like basis prices were reduced by seven per cent year on year 
• quality rating of placements was 90 per cent (deficiencies in quality reduce the likelihood of that provider winning business) 
• contracts were in place for every enrolled provider 
• significant efficiency savings had been made, for example streamlined invoicing meant two fewer full-time finance posts were required.

Following the success of adam in Staffordshire, we have worked with CCGs to introduce it in Merseyside (May 2017) and Cheshire (August 2017).

Further Information

If you would like more information about our services, you can contact us at mlcsu.personalisedhealthcare@nhs.net