Case Study

How we helped an ambulance service deliver employee-led quality improvement

How an Ambulance Service manages its time and resources is critical. Ensuring their teams are looked after physically and mentally is a key component to this.

+75%

Increase in ideas generated. Many of which are already having a tangible impact.

100%

of staff surveyed said that using Simply Do has helped them feel that YAS is committed to improvement

2000

Ideas captured and reviewed for consideration

SimplyDo has quickly become the go-to platform to crowdsource ideas and drive conversation around innovation

Craig Reynolds, Quality Improvement Advisor, Yorkshire Ambulance Service

Background:

Finding new ways to support their teams

Summary:

1

Looking for new ways to support the physical and mental health of their teams

2

Supporting ambulance stations with wide-ranging requirements

3

The need for a more effective way of engage and talk to staff

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) provides emergency care for over 5 million people, responding to over 750,000 ‘999’ calls every year. Each year, they undertake 1m patient transport journeys.

How an Ambulance Service manages its time and resources is critical. Ensuring their teams are looked after physically and mentally is a key component to this.

With every station being situated in different surroundings, with varying staff numbers and specific community needs, there’s only so far centrally managed initiatives could go. This is why the Yorkshire Ambulance Service wanted to better engage their staff - they wanted to understand the specific needs of each station.

Solution:

decentralised innovation at scale

Summary:

1

A platform that provides the framework to unlock great ideas

2

A simple way to create engaging challenges aligned to your priorities

3

An online and offline engagement plan designed for your organisation

YAS kick-started their innovation initiative with a spreadsheet. However, it soon became labour intensive; difficult to track, action or prioritise. Engagement dwindled and participants became unresponsive. This is where we came in.

Our challenge creation process guides you through every step of creating great challenges. We were able to help YAS structure challenges around their specific key areas. We made it easy to include rich content including images and videos, and made it simple to set challenge parameters and include deadlines and word counts.

Encouraging people to be part of innovation is key. That’s why our people + platform approach is essential. The SimplyDo team supports our clients in creating online and offline engagement plans and resources. We want to take the weight off of your shoulders to allow you to concentrate on the ideas.

We make it simple for people to quickly access challenges at their desk or on their mobile phone. You can easily submit and comment on ideas when it’s convenient for you.

Impact:

Transforming ideas to impact.

Summary:

1

Localised innovation at scale

2

A dramatic increase in engagement

3

Stronger connection with the organisation

There’s nothing more exciting than seeing ideas come to life. YAS were particularly interested in implementing many localised ideas at scale.

A great example of this was at Langley Station. Despite the station being situated near a main road, they - quite uniquely - had a beautiful wildlife space at the rear of their station. They also had no outside space they could actually use.

Outdoor seating and a gazebo was a solution to a problem that may never have been spotted when addressing ambulance stations at scale. It’s a really straightforward example of how our platform + local engagement can make great ideas happen.