Data plays a pivotal role in our modern world.

We live in a digital age where data is created faster than ever before and it is extremely valuable to organisations – but only if they know what to do with it.

Interpreting data so it can be turned into insights can help leaders and organisations make informed decisions on how to improve their services or processes. By seeing what the problem is, it is easier to see what the solution can be.

Nowhere is data more important than in the NHS – not just for the individual but for the whole population as a whole. It can be used to monitor and improve care for everyone, address health inequalities and plan services for the future.

Data provides indisputable evidence of what is and isn’t working, determining the cause of the problem, allowing organisations to take action, directing it where it needs to be and monitor whether it is working…. Or not.  It allows leaders to be proactive rather than reactive.

One of the challenges of analysing and utilising data is being able to access it all on one place. It can be very difficult and often time consuming is if it is across different systems, as is often the case, especially in the NHS.

General practice has access to a great deal of data but the Digital Maturity index (DMI) brings it all together in one place, visualised and centralised in a way where it’s easy to understand. The ground-breaking tool, which we built in partnership with Primary Care Analytics,  brings together a range of data sources in a central place to help practices baseline and measure improvement covering a range of information including:

• Patient online management information
• Electronic Prescribing, electronic repeat dispensing
• GP Patient survey
• Friends and Family Test
• Online Registrations and GP2GP

It allows primary care to evidence how well they are doing, if improvements are working and any issues that need addressing. In order to make improvements, you need to know the size of the problem, the issue that needs to be resolved and what can be done about it.

For instance, the DMI can show how many patients are online, enabled for prescriptions, enabled for appointments, enabled for detailed coded records. But also more importantly, whether they are actually using the tools for prescriptions, appointments and detailed record views.

It can show how many people are registered for the App and any activity managed by the App including repeat prescriptions.

The DMI information can be looked at different levels whether it is practice, PCN or ICB level. It can also help with returns that practices need to do including Access and Capacity submissions. You can also look at GP survey information at practice level and analyse each question to see any improvements or trends.

We are currently offering FREE 30-minute consultations to look at your data in the DMI and help you to unlock actionable insights that give you a clear guide to improvement.

You can find out more, and book your FREE consultation here.