News / Survey points to PLICS progress with acutes

Two-thirds of acute trusts and foundation trusts have either implemented or are now implementing patient-level information and costing systems (PLICS), according to a survey by the Department of Health.

The survey, conducted alongside this year’s reference costs collection, found that 95 acutes out of the 145 that responded to the survey were almost evenly split between those with a system in place and those mid-implementation. A further 19 are planning to implement PLICS, with just 31 (20%) having no current plans to take a PLICS approach to costing.

Another 12 organisations outside the acute sector (mental health and primary care trusts) also identified themselves as PLICS sites, with 18 (including one ambulance trust) planning PLICS downstream.

Some 85% of organisations with PLICS in place used the data to underpin their 2009/10 reference cost return.  Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust has done this for the last two years. Director of finance and information John Hennessey, a member of the HFMA’s Costing Special Interest Group, said patient-level costing had a role to play in delivering quality and productivity improvements. He said: ‘Given the challenges we face, we have to give clinicians this information in a user-friendly way to help us deliver the efficiencies.’

He added that using patient level data, Lewisham was  working hard on the dialogue between clinicians and the costing team and was starting to see the benefits.

Full results at www.dh.gov.uk