Written by Spencer Humphrys, Managing Director - Nexus Consulting In my last blog on Maximising SDEC (same day emergency care; you can read it here ), I talked about how getting the right patients into SDEC, even if that means SDEC isn't 'full', can have a far more positive impact on flow than just sending everyone that 'could' go. Hopefully, my message was clear: SDEC works best when it treats the right patients. And when SDEC works well, flow improves, cost reduces, and qua

Written by Spencer Humphrys - Managing Director Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) has been around for years under various names. I remember setting up the service with one of the best doctors I've ever met back in Basildon Hospital in 2015. Hagen isn't with us anymore, but I know I'm not the only person who is still influenced by his passion, his over-caffeinated excitement, and, most importantly, his absolute focus on patients and on making sure SDEC (or Ambulatory Care, as it

By Spencer Humphrys. Founder of Nexus Consulting Most people don't have an effort problem. They have a focus problem . Too many initiatives. Too many “priorities”. Too many things on the to-do list. Too many metrics that don't actually mean anything. I don't think I've ever visited any organisation and said, "You really need to do more work. Oh, and your action plans should be twice as long". What is consistent is that I always tell people to do less, just do what actually ma

Process mapping If you’re trying to improve performance, productivity, or patient flow, you’ll hear the same phrase over and over: “We need to fix the process.” But most organisations don’t actually have a process . They have a collection of habits, workarounds, and heroic efforts that somehow get the job done — until it doesn’t. The proper name is Business Process Modelling (BPM), which makes it sound more formal and difficult than it actually is. BPM just helps to turn “how

Our approach to problem solving

One of the ways to make significant steps forward in any process is to adopt the principles of single-piece flow

In acute healthcare, every minute matters. It matters for clinical staff who need more time to deliver the care they want. It matters for...

Delivering health services is tough. Having worked in the NHS for over 14 years, I still struggle to explain how complex it is and how...

At Nexus Consulting, we've had a front-row seat to the challenges and triumphs of healthcare transformation across the NHS and Social...

Lean isn't what you might think it is

A quick blog