McCrohon points to a local project on improving the district’s access and intake processes. At a progress meeting, analysts were able to answer questions on workflow and call numbers immediately. “Historically, this would have involved someone writing down a request, sending it to my team, formulating the data, and sending it back. It could have been the next meeting or the following meeting that they would have got the answers to the questions,” she says. “That ability to answer questions in real time is one of the key benefits at the service level as it frees up our capacity for other work.” A shift away from manual reporting has allowed the data analytics team to focus on quality improvement. “This could mean focusing on improved data quality, or digging into the data and understanding the story,” McCrohon says. After working in the district for 13 years, she says the data analytics space today “feels like a different world”. “Previously there was a disconnect between the information reports we were sending out and people’s experience on the ground. Now teams have confidence in the data, reports are automated, and people are taking ownership of their information,” she says. “We have consistent measures and consistent understanding of what those measures mean.” McGinnity agrees saying, “with automation and self-service analytics there are a lot of
queries that do not come to us anymore and the amount of manual work to produce reports is significantly reduced. “It provides greater efficiency and allows me to focus on providing greater value back to our customers.” Improving data literacy
Stuart McCaw’s focus is on getting benefit out of the analytics investment.
“When you are implementing software systems, you need to make sure that people understand and use the data, because that’s where the real benefit comes from. Key to that is data literacy,” he says. McCaw adopted and adapted a competency-based data literacy programme developed in Australia (Databilities ™ model from Data to the People) and the first tranche of training was in MHAIDS. He assesses which of a range of competencies a staff member needs to have and at what level. Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, McCaw was training staff in-person in groups. During lockdowns, he started virtual training one-on-one and found this hugely beneficial in terms of attendance and being able to train staff using their own data. “It’s important that we train and work on the information that people have to use in their working lives,” says McCaw. “I’m teaching them to understand trends over time: to identify a potential problem on a graph and then comment on what
“This was a data quality
improvement process, but it is
also fundamentally helping to manage our understanding of our staff mix within our teams, ensuring that is accurate and therefore vacancies are accurately reflected. This has a significant impact on recruiting and speeding up that process.”
Stuart McCaw, Programme Manager
HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND | A HINZ SPECIAL REPORT | 9
Powered by FlippingBook