How this NHS Trust uses Vizlib’s data visualization tool to benefit patients

Through their specialism and expertise, Catalyst BI is committed to leveraging the latest technologies across Data Management, Data Analytics and Data Science, and continues to help accelerate business value and deliver a world class partnership to their customers and future prospects.

A great example of this is when Catalyst BI identified and recommended Vizlib as an ideal solution to meet the needs of the team at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust. In this case study, we reflect on this ongoing collaboration and how it has impacted the team for the better. 

What did THIS NHS Trust need from a data visualization tool? 

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust employs over 6,000 people operating across two large hospitals; Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, both of which are located in the UK. 

Together, these hospitals provide a range of services, including: urgent and emergency care, medical, surgical, maternity, gynaecology, critical care, children’s and young people’s services, end of life care, and outpatient and diagnostic imaging services. With so much to be monitored, having quick access to insightful data is crucial to delivering the highest quality of service, to both patients and staff.

A Qlik Sense user for many years, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust use Qlik across their whole organisation –  from board level applications to crucial clinical applications. So, the team was keen to ensure that they maximise the capabilities of Qlik across their systems. 

Partnering with Vizlib’s data visualization solution 

This is what brought Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS trust, Catalyst BI, and Vizlib together. The team at Catalyst BI identified the value in Vizlib’s innovative data visualization tools and Business Intelligence solutions, and knew that the product would improve both patient experience and accelerate value across the Trust. 

We sat down with Oliver Hutchinson, Planned Care Operational Manager, Gawaine Carter, Head of Corporate Information, Calum MacIver, Critical Systems Manager – Corporate Information, and Robert Cox, Interface and Intelligence Lead – Corporate Information, to understand the impact Vizlib’s solution added value, both for their team, and their patients. 

How the Qlik Sense and Vizlib integration improved efficiency and patient care 

The initial need for Vizlib came from the team’s desire to improve the process of outpatient bookings. The previous process involved clerical teams having to switch between clinical systems and Excel to manage the complex flow of outpatient clinic bookings. The Trust recognised the time that could be saved by switching this process for a single application that would allow their clinical teams to make amendments and write back to the data at the source. 

The team sought the help of their long time partner, Catalyst, who recommended Vizlib’s Collaboration suite to solve this challenge. The team consequently delivered a consultancy project that resulted in significant financial and time savings for the Trust. 

Now fully implemented, Vizlib’s Collaboration suite is used across the Trust in many complex applications. It’s estimated the project saved the equivalent of two full time employees in efficiency savings, allowing the Trust to redeploy crucial resources elsewhere. Adopting Writeback has also made the bookings process much more efficient, as it only requires one person to manage the tool. 

The speed of development has been a real plus side to us. We’re able to capture data into our warehouse by using Vizlib. If we were to do it the other way to capture data in our clinical records, that would take us months of development, whereas by doing it ourselves, we have been able to do it in minutes. Also having an audit trail of ‘who’s doing what’ has been a massive bonus.

– Gawaine Carter

How data visualization enhanced staff care

Using Vizlib has also helped the Trust with organising and documenting internal processes, such as staff records. A great example of this came during the Covid-19 pandemic, when staff care was at the height of concern for all NHS Trusts. It became a priority that all staff be vaccinated quickly to protect them and their families. 

The Trust had tried many ways to manage this process. They attempted to use each team member’s payroll number, but this became too challenging to track. The team chose to use Qlik and Vizlib Collaboration to build a Vaccination management application. This application helped significantly expedite the process and crucially ensured the welfare of key workers.

They tried many ways in the past. They couldn’t link the vaccination to the staff making it hard to report on which divisions in which people were missing the vaccinations. Vizlib gave us next to real time reporting.

– Gawaine Carter

Summing up

To summarise the impact of Vizlib on the team so far, Gawaine said: “We’ve had Writeback in the building for 12-18 months. The proof of concept was so successful that at pace, a number of other pieces of work have moved forward and brought benefits to the organisation as a whole. We like the integration, we like that everything is in the same place. We wouldn’t want to revert to the old way.”

Ready to bring your business forward? Vizlib’s suite of purpose-built solutions will help your organisation to level-up business analytics and  data visualization tools. Get started now to enhance the capabilities of data analytics with improved dashboarding power! Vizlib is free for up to five users, and loved by 1,000s of brands around the world.