Case Study

Norfolk and Waveney Acute Hospital Collaborative – Full Business Case Benefits

Driving Digital Transformation through detailed review and planning for Benefits Realisation within an Acute Hospital Collaborative EPR Programme.

This is the account of how the full business case benefits ambitions were reviewed and defined to allow for programme and organisational ownership and understanding through working with the EPR Delivery Team of Norfolk and Waveney Acute Hospital Collaborative.

Below you will find the details of how max20 Project Solutions and Norfolk and Waveney Acute Hospital Collaborative worked together on a 3-month rapid review of the proposed Statement of Planned Benefits (SoPB) with the EPR Change and Benefits workstreams. In order to do this effectively, they started with the detail and ambition as outlined in the full business case (FBC) and using a step-review and sprint model, undertook a review and ratification project, which max20 Project Solutions completed within a 12-week period, the outputs of which allowed NWAHC to identify the work and challenges ahead for engagement, planning, and confidence in how the solution, the programme, and the organisations would come to realise those benefits.

Key Highlights:

  • Use of a rapid-agile delivery method focusing each stage of work for both NWAHC expertise to max20 engagement requirements
  • Fast-paced delivery of both an overarching Benefit Strategy and the Organisational and Programme level Statements of Planned Benefits in 12 weeks.
  • Production of a handover kit of key tools and definitions, and guidance to support the continued upskilling of existing staff
  • Provision of a data visualisation platform to support tracking and reporting of benefits planning, and eventually benefit value and performance

In numbers:

  • 75 Benefits documents reviewed
  • 37 benefits agreed and defined with NWAHC expert end users
  • 4 defined sprints
  • 3 QIMAT assessments initiated
  • 1 Programme level and 3 organisation level Statements of Planned Benefits
  • 1 workshop with 70+ participants to explore drivers and risks for the 37 benefits
  • 1 end of project workshop and handover toolkit with 30+ participants to explore enablers, readiness, and the Benefits Dashboard

The Challenge

Taking the Benefits model from the full business case into a clear plan of enabling work

The Norfolk and Waveney Acute Hospital Collaborative (NWAHC), comprising James Paget University Hospital, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn, aims to enhance patient care and staff experience with their new, shared EPR deployment. Through collaboration of resources and expertise, each organisation strives to design and deploy the new solution efficiently and effectively, utilising it to deliver benefits relating to diagnosis and treatment across the region, ultimately improving access to care and reducing waiting times.

The Collaborative developed business requirements, full business case, and benefits profiles through high-quality and effective user-centred design and engagement, and they remained focussed upon this being the model for developing their benefits realisation and delivery strategy.

Earlier work which had identified the challenges for them were specifically:

  • The need to reflect and understand the reasons for variation in care delivery
  • The established and different approaches to patient record management
  • The variance in digital maturity across organisations and staff groups
  • How they should reflect and incorporate these into Benefits Strategy and Plans so that work and outcome remained equitable and achievable for the FBC lifecycle of 10-15years.

NWAHC wanted to ensure that collaboration and staff engagement remained key, and no opinion, concern, or endorsement was ever considered incorrect, and fair question and understanding was to be wholly embraced. Their comprehensive benefits needed to be reviewed and assured in the same way as they had been proposed and endorsed in early 2024.

Alongside this task, a review of core clinical pathways was begun across the region with outputs which would also identify where digital solutions should be used – and care needed to be taken that this did not rescope the EPR programme or its supporting FBC.

The Solution

Reviewing, assuring, and owning – not only the Benefit, but the how

NWAHC partnered with max20, leveraging their extensive experience in healthcare project solutions to undertake the review and structuring of the FBC Benefits framework. As always, max20 kept the work expert- and user-centric, which involved thoroughly understanding the development and rationale for each of the benefits, and the concerns and perspectives of the individuals who would be tasked with their realisation.

Through interviews, workshops, and open discussion, the max20 team, comprising a Project Director and a Senior Benefits Associate, focused on capturing, understanding, and reflecting the real experiences, uncertainties, and ambitions of Programme Team members and associated professions. This work focussed upon the delivery of:

  • shared understanding of the nature and ambition of each benefit
  • open expression and articulation of risks and challenges for each benefit
  • opportunities and gaps in organisational and programme readiness for benefit delivery
  • governance models for shared delivery and collaboration in benefit design

max20 undertook a structured review framework, including weekly updates and reports to executive and steering groups thus ensuring consistency and shared understanding across the Trusts. This enabled full support of the Benefits Framework and its associated Strategy across all areas of the programme and organisations, for the EPR programme.

 

“A benefits realisation approach needs a clear framework, as well as being culturally embedded across all parts of a health system.”

The Outcomes

1 Strategy, 4 detailed Benefits Statements, 1 Programme Level Enabling Framework

When NWAHC were looking for an experienced partner for this Benefits Review, Strategy, and Plan project to support their EPR implementation, they knew they could rely on max20 to deliver results within the timescale required. max20’s approach underscores the value of tailored frameworks, stakeholder collaboration, and real-time insights to unlock the full potential of NHS Digital initiatives, which is fundamental for organisations looking to optimise their digital transformation journey.

The review provided a detailed gap analysis of the benefits framework, development of associated risk assessments for benefits aligned to programme risk, and knowledge-sharing initiatives to ensure alignment with NHS Digital’s governance and transparency standards.

Key tools utilised included the Quality Improvement Maturity Assessment Tool (QIMAT) and an updated Statement of Planned Benefits (SoPB), which were integral to positioning the Trusts for progression along their digital journey, including higher HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) levels and establishing a robust approach to digitally enabled patient-centric care.

Where the NHSE model understandably looks to the procured digital solution enablers for the benefits, both NWAHC and max20 recognised the need for a comprehensive understanding of the Programme and Organisational aspects too. This would help plan and demonstrate their responsibilities to identify and plan for more focussed enabling work such as engagement, governance, and long-term management of the benefits plan post-Programme.

By delivering a dynamic, enabler-led, benefits strategy that the Trusts can adapt, track, and update iteratively, max20 empowered NWAHC to move from business case approval to meaningful, measurable progress before the EPR programme’s go-live phase. This case demonstrates how combining Human-Centred Design (HCD) principles with both Service Change and Development initiatives, as well as bespoke digital solutions can drive measurable improvements, strengthen strategic decision-making, and support the seamless adoption of transformation initiatives across complex healthcare ecosystems.

 

“Being able to baseline benefits within the max20 benefits dashboard, supports Trusts with visualising their Statement of Planned Benefits (SoPB) as well as tracking/optimising their Return on Investment”