A new operating model to allow continued profitable growth

Connect Health is the largest independent community healthcare provider of its type in the UK, providing musculoskeletal, pain management and mental health services, plus other out-of-hospital community care, nationwide.  It provides personalised care to over 350,000 NHS patients each year, with a focus on quality, outcomes, safety and experience.  Patient administration is handled through a Patient Care Co-ordination team (PCC) in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The company had grown incredibly quickly over a short period, organically and through acquisition.  This growth, and the need to fully integrate acquired businesses, led the board to seek an assessment of the company’s organisational structure, the effectiveness of the overhead and support functions and performance within the PCC.  An important requirement was that the future organisation would be lean, agile, sustainable, and could operate at pace.  This final point is crucial given the need for the business to rapidly absorb large numbers of patients and staff after winning a contract.

We worked with the business in three linked phases to reduce risk.  We identified, developed and then implemented these changes:

• A new management structure that optimised managerial capacity, reduced silos, and integrated acquired services. Fewer tiers would also mean better control and communication.
• Clarity over accountability by role, to remove duplicated effort and ensure necessary inward facing and customer facing activity was clear.
• New management systems were introduced to allow improved planning and control with new review mechanisms and processes and a focus on productivity.
• More commercial attitudes and managerial styles. This behavioural change was key to the success of the programme and was supported by formal, bespoke training sessions as well as plenty of practical follow up and coaching in the workplace.

Core to the programme was the need to ensure no changes would adversely affect the patient experience or service levels.  Overall, the business was leaner and more cost effective with a significant cost saving well above the figure originally estimated.

Chief Executive Officer, Mike Turner said…

“This was a key project for Connect and one with inherent risks.  Collinson Grant helped us to design and implement a change programme, navigating through this, which ultimately delivered benefits above our expectations.  Their help was invaluable.”