The long overdue move to true oversight in delivered care packages in out-of-hospital settings finally seems to be happening. We’re now seeing councils actually putting out to tender systems they hope can manage the operational and financial aspects of care delivery, and at Alocura we are working at pace to install our system, Rostrata, onto care frameworks.
It is interesting, though, that the move to understanding how care packages are performing in real-time is still being seen by some as plugging a digital gap, where it will just take a move away from paper and a few more audit systems to solve a lot of the issues in care delivery.
Actually, the way oversight and efficient care delivery will be achieved is by filling a data void, although void might be underplaying the problem – the lack of delivered care data is more akin to a chasm. It’s no small matter; delivered care data is critical information, and it is entirely absent in the current process. This is why we developed Rostrata in the first place – because no-one seemed to know what care budgets were being spent on.
Perhaps understandably, people don’t want to talk about value in care. It feels too transactional, too business focused. But actually, if you have access at any point to the delivered care data – as you can with Rostrata – suddenly a whole host of vital reporting outcomes become available.
Cashable efficiencies might also seem like an uncomfortable term in care delivery. But if you can see exactly what the care was spent on against the agreed budget and care plan at any time, there’s the opportunity to investigate variations, optimise the budget and even claw back unspent or misused funds.
Data oversight = smarter commissioning
And this data oversight, because it is layered and accessible for all the stakeholders in the process, also allows for productivity efficiencies too. Not in terms of delivering less care, but ensuring that the right care is being delivered at the right time, enabling far better care outcomes for people… who knows, there may even be the space to enable commissioners to move towards much smarter commissioning practices.
For instance, in the organisations we work with who have installed Rostrata, we’re seeing efficiencies of up to 30 per cent already. Just in terms of clawback – which rather than being managed retrospectively can be managed in real-time with Rostrata – our experience is that between 9% and 15% of all budgets are underspent. This money can and should be recovered and recycled within the care system.
And because Rostrata can be delivered through open book relationships with providers and other stakeholders, costs and rates are normalised, and efficiencies actually shared through management and administration/audit savings.
All of which results in much smarter commissioning, safer commissioning, and moves towards the value-based care we have talked about. Ultimately, outcomes are improved and costs reduced.
The logic, then, is solid. The market is waking up to the absence of this critical data, and the need for systems that provide it. Rostrata is that system.