How we helped an NHS Trust division build out an Improvement Warehouse

Capturing and managing change is challenging yet essential. Welsh Blood Service introduced the 5 Minute Improvement methodology to formalise Service Improvement and support their 5-year strategy.

130
Improvements submitted to date
66%
Administrative reduction in time spent on tasks
87%
Improvements identified with an efficiency saving
Our collaboration with SimplyDo has enabled the WBS to deliver a digitalised approach to the management of improvement work within the WBS and establish an open and engaging platform for staff to share, collaborate and celebrate their improvements. The progress to date has built a solid foundation on which to develop more strategic challenges and continue to grow our improvement culture.
Alan Prosser - Director

Background:

Creating a culture of improvement activity

Summary:

1
Sharing & celebrating improvements and building a legacy of SI that will become part of the organisation’s culture
2
Supporting the creation of a culture of quality and continuous improvement
3
Ensuring that services continuously meet quality expectations and deliver the best outcomes for patients, donors and staff

In January 2022, the WBS Senior Leadership Team (SLT) approved a bold 3-Year Service Improvement (SI) Action Plan, with the goal of embedding a culture of continuous improvement throughout the organisation. A baseline survey in April 2022 showed that only 33% of staff had engaged in SI activities, highlighting the need for a more structured and accessible approach.

The WBS team launched the “5 Minute Improvements” initiative to encourage staff to contribute small, actionable improvements, ultimately aimed at enhancing service quality for patients, donors, and staff. While this initiative gained traction, the sheer volume of submitted ideas soon outpaced the manual processes in place, creating a need for a more efficient solution.

Solution:

Creating an Improvement Warehouse to simplify, scale and track activity

Summary:

1
Creating a digital process to handle current manual improvement capturing
2
Creating an environment where staff feel empowered to take control of improvements in their work area
3
Introducing project boards to assess, track and progression of improvements

We worked closely with the WBS team to understand their strategic goals and objectives. Through an end-to-end improvement journey workshop, we identified key areas in the Service Improvement (SI) process that could benefit from automation. 

This included automating idea submission, engagement, assessment, and management. We introduced social features on the platform, enabling staff to submit, like, and comment on improvements. Additionally, we designed a customised assessment process and review board to digitise and automate the assessment, progression, and communication steps. 

This collaborative approach allowed us to reconfigure the platform to align with WBS's existing manual processes, streamlining their improvement activities and ensuring greater efficiency and engagement.

Impact:

Streamlining processes and enhancing transparency

Summary:

1
Reducing administrative burden
2
Enhancing transparency and engagement
3
Streamlining assessment and tracking

The new system has reduced administrative burden by 66%, eliminating manual tasks like data preparation, excessive communication, and internal report writing. This allows the team to focus on higher-value activities.

Social features on the platform have increased transparency, giving staff access to over 100 submitted improvements from their colleagues. With 429 likes and 328 comments across the improvements, the platform has fostered greater collaboration and shared learning.

Additionally, by mapping the post-submission and assessment process in SimplyDo, data calculation, reporting, and communication with submitters has been automated, streamlining the entire improvement journey and ensuring faster, more efficient tracking and progress updates.

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