QI 1327 Improving the Post-Diagnostic Offer for Adult Neurodevelopmental Services

Abstract

Aim: To improve the post-diagnostic offer to patients waiting specialist assessment and intervention as well as improving the efficiency of staff resources and time.

Following assessment and diagnosis of Autism or ADHD by the assessment team, the standard post-diagnostic offer is able to be accessed by all. In addition, assessing clinicians can also refer for individual Occupational Therapy (OT) and/or Speech & Language Therapy (SLT) as required. Following a big increase in referrals, the significant impact on wait times led to the need for improvements within this service.

Kat and Sarah used a number of QSIR tools to support the project such as:

Process Mapping which is usually undertaken with a range of people involved in the process, and enables you to create a visual picture of how the pathway currently works, capturing the reality of the process, exposing areas of duplication, waste, unhelpful variation and unnecessary steps. Run Charts are displays of data over time, shown in graph form, similar to SPC Charts, and can be useful to analyse and understand variation in a system. Stakeholder Analysis which enables you to identify everyone who needs to be involved in your change project, and assess how much time and resources you give to maintain involvement and commitment. It is a way to engage a wide variety of people such as clinicians, admin staff, patients and user groups in order to deliver your project.

Project Impact: A total of 116.5 hours of staff time has been saved each month, saving approximately £2891.53