Weeknote #17–15th to 19th August
Back weeknoting after a few weeks off — the weeks are flying by at the minute.
Monday
I started with prep for our Executive Management Board (EMB) on the progress we’re making on Cerner Anaesthesia (more on this, by clicking this link).
After this, I attended a session with BI, Performance , Transformation & Technical colleagues on the progress we’re making around the use of the correct encounter in Cerner for Theatres. We know the impact when we do not get this right and one of the things the teams have been working tirelessly on for the last few weeks is a new tool in Qliksense that will enable us to identify opportunities to reduce the likelihood of this happening for elective surgery, and where it does happen — the ability to detect + resolve quicker. Using the data, we can then take an evidence-based approach to driving improvements across people, process and technology. More on this over the coming weeks.
Also, I met with our EPR Support team to discuss our current support arrangements for clinical colleagues in Theatres (see above link for more info). We are making progress, but still have a way to go with our clinical colleagues. It was a healthy discussion, and we identified a number of opportunities to have a stronger feedback loop with other supporting teams.
I closed out the day on our Portfolio Board for IT Applications. Liam (Programme Delivery Manager) has been in post for a few months now and things are really taking shape.
Tuesday
I started with a large coffee and finished a business case that needed to go to our Capital Programme Board (CPB) in August. I had let this slip due to prioritising a number of live service issues the week before, but I didn’t want this to creep into September.
We’ve been recruiting for a number of positions over the last two weeks, and we have offers out for all positions. We had a really strong round of interviews and applications for our Operations & Delivery roles. It will be great to see the team evolve and continue to take shape over the coming months!
I ended the day catching up with Tom, around the forward plan for September, and the re-launch of the self-service experience for IT. Lots to do and not that far away now…
Wednesday
I presented to Executive Management Board (EMB) the position around Cerner Anaesthesia. We also had a migration of Qlikview to new infrastructure in the afternoon. We have had a few curveballs and thorny issues to work through on this one, and a lot of it relating to the fact we’re using parts of Qlikview that are legacy, and are no longer being developed. We have more to do in this space by working with technology partners to keep ahead proactively on new / emerging / changing technology.
Thursday
I had a quick chat with David to iron out some of the language in the business case (mentioned earlier) to make a clearer distinction between IT <> Medical Devices.
In HealthIT, we managed to unblock a problem with one of our clinical systems in ICU. This has been quite a challenging decision to make across clinical, operational and technical teams — but we have a plan for the next 12 months, and have committed to further work at a sector / ICS level to plan beyond.
The business case I had finalised earlier in the week was approved after I presented it at Capital Programme Board in the afternoon.
Friday
It started with a Coffee with Kevin session — something I’ve been experimenting with in August. Anyone in my team is welcome to join; no agenda (you may want to talk about something outside of work, or perhaps something you’re working on, or just what happened in last nights’ episode of <insert name of program here>); with a beverage of your choice (I am bias towards coffee). I had a great discussion with Sheikh this week and look forward to more of these discussions.
I caught up with Rintu (Lead Test Engineer) and we explored a few snags in Jira & Xray around the automation of the creation of test reports (i.e. freeing up time to focus more on testing activities). We came up with a solution for part of the problem, and am hoping the final part will be nailed next week. Investing this time now and “setting the bar/standard” around quality assurance & testing activities will greatly benefit the programme to bring our application portfolio into compliance.
We presented to the divisions the new tool in Qliksense (above) and had a great discussion. There are several takeaways for the divisions, and supporting teams and we will circle back to this next week.
Just a few headlines from this week — if you got this far, thank you and have a great weekend.
