Step forward Andy Bailey, Information & Contracts Manager at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. With characteristic modesty, he comments: “Not sure it’s anything special, but better for users to create their own datasets rather than going through me.”

Well, it is certainly better if Gooroo users don’t have to bother an information analyst every time they want to do some planning. But as for it not being anything special, well I would disagree. So what is it?

As Andy explains to Gooroo users around the Trust: “it will allow you to generate the core dataset and make alterations as you see fit.  The screen shot below provides you with the gist of how it works, you choose some dates, run the report and the table below will appear.  Any row can be updated thereby allowing you to tweak LOS, theatre minutes, etc (if you’re unhappy with the proxies).  When you press the ‘export data’ button, a csv file will be generated and you’ll be prompted to save it somewhere.  It’s this file that you can then upload into the Gooroo system.”

In the screenshot below I have obscured the actual numbers for privacy:

In the old days (i.e. a few years ago) hospitals used to be places where 2,000 people put information into the computer system but only 5 people could get it back out again. Not any more. Increasingly, NHS Trusts and Commissioners have modern data warehouses with user-friendly interfaces, so that managers in all parts of the organisation can pull the data out themselves.

Andy’s interface is a great example of this. This apparently-simple dataset is enough to run multiple activity scenarios through Gooroo Planner, to work out waiting times, waiting lists, activity, beds, and theatres. By automating the information analyst’s role, Andy has saved himself a lot of work, and removed himself as a possible bottleneck when others want to do some planning.