News / Clinicians vital to costing

‘Talk to your clinicians about costing systems and reference costs.’ This was the plea made by Dr Nick Griffin, consultant paediatrician and chair of the NHS Information Centre’s HRG4 design team, to finance managers at the HFMA’s payment by results summit in London last month.

Dr Griffin said that engaging clinicians in costing was vital in terms of improving understanding of costing locally, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and improving the accuracy of the national tariff. He said that clinicians wanted accurate information, too. But he warned that clinicians would need support in understanding healthcare resource groups. He said they might not understand the structure, what data was available or the design rules. ‘You have to accept that they come at this with as much ignorance as you have on the procedures they are doing.’

He suggested that conversations needed to start with an acknowledgement that current processes might not pick up the full costs and then look jointly at how they could be better captured. ‘This dialogue should stress that it is not just about saving money, but [also about] finding money to invest in more quality,’ he said.


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