Choose and Book: lessons from the Barnsley Early Adopter Project
Presently in the lead with the highest number of online appointment
bookings, Barnsley Health and Social Care Community has made a significant
breakthrough in the not-so-easy implementation of England’s national Choose
and Book Programme. Implementation-team leaders, Rhona Collins,
Malcolm Braim and Dr Heather Heathfield describe how
they got the system going.
ABSTRACT
Barnsley Health and Social Care Community is one of the early adopters in
the implementation programme of the Choose and Book Service of the North
East Cluster of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Barnsley is now
leading the way in implementing Choose and Book and to date has completed
more online bookings than any other early adopter site.
Key lessons learnt in Barnsley are that successful implementation of
Choose and Book must be underpinned by a clear and persuasive vision
sponsored by a senior manager or clinician; it is important to undertake
acceptance testing early in the system lifecycle; project management needs a
‘whole systems’ approach and protected time for key staff; user involvement
is essential to ensure engagement and buy-in; workflows in primary care must
be developed collaboratively with local staff; and training must be flexible
and comprehensive. The project has already demonstrated the benefits Choose
and Book brings to patients and anticipates future benefits to GPs and
practice staff, hospital consultants and staff, as well as NHS managers.
Br J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2005; 22(2): 30–2. |
