Service line management for improved care

12 November 2007

The need for NHS productivity and quality improvements is greater than ever, yet the rate of NHS funding increases is set to slow from 2008 onwards in the new comprehensive spending review settlement. The potential benefit of clinicians becoming more engaged in managing these tensions for the benefit of patients is widely accepted. But how can managers and clinicians best work together to make this happen?

One approach that is gaining momentum is to establish service line reporting - or management. Monitor - Independent Regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts, has developed service line management as a potentially powerful means of improving levels of performance and patient care within NHS organisations. Monitor introduced the concept of service line management to help trusts gather reliable and robust information on service quality and productivity that, in turn, enables the delivery of a better service for patients.

What is the conference about?
This conference will look at how service line management can be used to help determine both the optimum organisational structure and portfolio of services provided by trusts. The conference will bring together both clinicians’ and managers’ experiences of leading these changes together. It will also raise questions around how established career paths need to develop to reflect the need for clinical leaders with wider management skills.

Topics covered will include:

• organisation development - innovation and reshaping services;
• leadership and accountability for clinicians and managers; and
• performance optimisation.

Conference aims
This conference aims to:

• increase understanding of service line management and how organisations need to evolve to support this way of thinking and working;
• share practical strategies, via case studies, for implementing service line management in foundation trust and NHS trust settings; and
• encourage discussion between clinicians and managers about how best to develop service line management in the workplace.

More on service line management
Service line management is where a group of services (service lines) provided by a hospital are run as distinct business units, to drive more efficient ways of working, and so improve patient care. The first step in the process is to get the systems in place to deliver reliable data on each service line. This is then used by clinicians and managers to develop services, devolving decision-making to the front line.

This way of working delivers wider benefits to an organisation; improved understanding at the service-line level leads to improved business planning and decision making, vital to any successful healthcare provider.

For the past 12 months, Monitor has been developing the service line management model, undertaking pilot work with several NHS foundation trusts. By drawing on international best practice from Germany, Norway and the United States, Monitor has successfully established service line management as a powerful means of improving levels of performance and patient care within NHS organisations. For more information see Monitor publications.

Who should attend?

• chief executives, directors and heads of department of NHS and foundation trusts;
• clinical directors and medical directors of NHS and foundation trusts;
• finance directors of NHS and foundation trusts; and
• senior representatives from health professional and health policy organisations.

To register for the event please visit the Kings Fund website.