Case study: Administrator Presents Insights and Action Plan, Improves Employee Morale

Madhavi initially saw the Data Citizen Apprenticeship as an opportunity to become more efficient in her work processes and stay updated and relevant. But she hadn't realised just how integral data is to her role.

When a doctor at Sundridge wants to refer a patient, Madhavi processes data to book an appointment with the relevant specialist through an e-referral system. She also manages and regularly audits "fast-track" referrals for patients with suspected cancer. And she handles third-party requests for patient data (e.g. from insurers or employers).

Now in hindsight, she says, "everything I touch and see is data".

Sundridge conducts an annual patient survey to collect feedback around quality of care, standard of facilities, experience booking an appointment and other service aspects. Madhavi collects, cleanses and analyses the data from this survey.

This year she saw the project as a chance to try out some of her new data skills. She applied her learnings on the apprenticeship to join some 130+ survey responses, combining her colleague's dataset using PowerQuery. She also built pivot tables—a personal first—to further consolidate the data and then created different data visualisations to present and highlight patterns in patient responses.

Once she'd pulled together insights from the survey data, Madhavi drafted an action plan for improvement. She then presented her findings and the action plan at a staff meeting. The feedback data, along with her visualisations and action plan, were published on Sundridge's website. She says the apprenticeship gave her the confidence to present.

But one of the most rewarding outcomes of the project for Madhavi was being able to raise employee morale. The comments she shared from patients praising their experience were met with applause from the staff.

Visit our Level 3 Data Citizen programme page to learn more about this programme or see our complete list of data programmes for the NHS.

Or if you'd prefer to get in touch with us directly for more information, provide us your information in the form below. We’ll contact you within the next two business days to arrange a quick call to help with any questions about the programme.