Clinical Solutions International Ltd (Now Capita Healthcare Decisions) supplied clinical decision support content to leading organisations across the world. The content supported decision making for telephone assessments carried out by nurses based in a call centre and has been used in over 80million assessments.

Ensuring that the content was safe and fit for purpose clinically and that it operated effectively in the software, fell to the Clinical Solutions Clinical Development and Governance Team.

As customer numbers increased (including customers requiring content and training in different languages) so did Team size.

As within any team, there were team members form different age groups and with different skills. Some had worked in a provider organisations delivering care with the content and software, others had no previous skills with it. Some had a lot of experience with guideline creation, other less. Technical ability also varied. 

What did not vary was the passion the whole team held for delivering a quality product that would enhance patient care. They all wanted to show they were the best.

As additional staff were recruited, the team dynamics changed. Dr Jean Challiner, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President led the Clinical Team and adopted a coaching style to effectively manage the change with individuals and with the Team as a whole.

Activities included:

• A Team Vision and Values workshop - shared goals and commitment
• Skills and preferences based allocation of work - meaningful and enjoyable work
• Pulse reports - weekly brief collective reporting where individuals could ask or offer help to others and where we could celebrate successes - everyone had a time to speak
• Joint kick off events for new pieces of work - sharing information
• Individual coaching and mentoring sessions - personal growth and learning
• Coach training for some team members - new skills for supporting others
• A Team Esteem event
• Revisiting values and commitment when the going got tough - recognising when things change and revisiting goals

What else did we achieve?

• the team developed greater appreciation and respect for each other
• we jointly celebrated successes 
• there was less challenge about work allocation 
• priorities were determined and adhered to
• support was offered and accepted and not seen as interference or a failure
• new team members were quickly integrated into the team 
• there was reallocation of activities to team members of a different skill set for maximum efficiency
• increased focus on what mattered

Overall the team delivered a huge amount of high quality work which led to accreditation of the content and the underpinning Clinical Governance Framework by URAC in the US and The Information Standard in the UK. It was also approved by the Department of Health for use within the NHS 111 service. In addition, the team activities were presented to External Clinical Advisory Panels in Autumn 2013 and Spring 2014 when customers from across the world came together to review and endorse the Teams work.

Dr Challiner, nominated by her team, won Capita’s Divisional Leadership Award in 2013.