Potential Savings

A recent report by the National Audit Office identified that the annual spending of NHS hospitals in England was around £4.6 billion, and revealed that trusts are paying widely varying prices for the same products.

Significant savings can be generated by streamlining the number of suppliers to the Orthotics department and by securing improved terms in return for increased volume.

Challenges

• Wasted time and effort to reconcile orders placed with payments made to suppliers
• Missed opportunities to negotiate improved terms with suppliers
• No central view on orders placed by type and supplier
• Different systems used to manage various aspects of the service
• Little or no collaboration between Orthotics and Finance departments

Solution

Deployment of Therapy Manager into Orthotics will help users to:

• Reconcile all orders into a single report
• View total expenditure by supplier or type of equipment
• Ensure compliance with Standing Financial Instructions

All orders created for patients can be categorised by their “Fitting Status”, ensuring that clinicians and managers can quickly view orders that are at different stages of completion such as “Submitted”, “Approved for Payment” and “Goods Received”. These can then be reported upon at the press of a button, ensuring that there is total clarity about the exact expenditure within Orthotics.

Business Case

• Reduced administrative time processing orders
• Reduced clinical time creating and submitting orders
• Reduced management time spent approving orders
• Reduced paper are printing costs of order forms
• Improved terms with suppliers