Supporting the development of practice administrative teams to improve GP practice processes.
Why did we focus on this?
General practice in Scotland is experiencing significant challenges with a rising and ageing population who have increasingly complex needs. The General Medical Services Contract 2018 (GMS 2018) focuses on sharing responsibility to better manage the challenges of the increasing workflow.
What were we trying to achieve?
The Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative (PASC) was launched in February 2018 and aimed to support practice administrative staff to develop their quality improvement (QI) skills while improving key GP practice processes and outcomes and care experience for people, families and staff.
The Practice Administrative Staff collaborative focused on two main areas:
- Workflow optimisation - to reduce the amount of time GPs spend on correspondence management.
- Improving care navigation - to make the best use of GP practice appointments and resources in order for patients to be seen by the right person, at the right time and in the right place.
How did we achieve this?
Phase 1: Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative Pilot
A Workflow Optimisation Digital Toolkit and accompanying motion graphic was created to support practice teams to develop, test and implement processes to improve their correspondence management.
Visit our Workflow Optimisation Digital Toolkit
A Care Navigation Digital Toolkit was created which provides a step by step guide to implementing care navigation within GP practices.
Visit our Care Navigation Digital Toolkit
An external evaluation was conducted during the cycle of PASC Phase 1, which you can access here.
A hard copy of the Workflow Optimisation and Care Navigation toolkit were distributed to every GP practice in Scotland in July 2019.
Phase 2: Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative Scale up
We scaled up the programme and delivered a series of national workshops in locations across the country in late 2019. The workshops presented a combination of existing tools and resources and developed the application of QI methodology.
In early 2020 due to COVID-19, delivery of phase 2 of the collaborative had to cease. Instead the original Care Navigation toolkit was revised and a shorter 10 step guide was developed to support practices to implement safe and effective care navigation processes and aid resilience.
Visit our Care Navigation in General Practice: 10-Step Guide.
Who did we work with?
Phase 1: Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative Pilot
Following a competitive recruitment process, four multidisciplinary teams from six Health & Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) joined us on this improvement journey:
- Argyll & Bute HSCP
- Clackmannanshire and Stirling & Falkirk HSCPs (joint application)
- East Lothian HSCP, and
- South Lanarkshire & North Lanarkshire HSCPs (joint application).
Each team involved a selection of GP clusters, participating in a range of quality improvement activities.
Phase 2: Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative Scale up
The Primary Care Improvement Portfolio worked with the 15 Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) listed below to support 185 GP practices to adopt and adapt the learning from the first phase of PASC in relation to workflow optimisation and care navigation.
- Angus
- Borders
- Dundee
- East Ayrshire
- East Dunbartonshire
- East Renfrewshire
- Edinburgh City
- Fife
- Glasgow City
- Highland
- North Ayrshire
- Perth & Kinross
- Shetland
- South Ayrshire
Stay in contact
Follow the Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative conversation on Twitter:
@SPSP_PC and tweet us using the hashtag #PASC
Should you have any questions regarding the Collaborative, please contact his.pcpteam@nhs.scot