Putting users' needs first
We need to get better at thinking about thing from the user’s point of view, whether that is our staff, our patients or their families/carers. This means User Research methods and skills to understand what people are trying to do and how they are trying to do it, and then designing our systems and solutions in a way that puts them first.
Designing for simplicity
We want our systems to be simple and easy-to-use. The best digital systems and solutions are intuitive, simple and make sense to users without needing in-depth training. We want there to be as few different systems that our patients and staff need to use as possible. We should be doing the hard work to make it easy for them.
Working in an agile way
We know that working flexibly and using agile principles will allow us to make rapid progress, whilst remaining flexible when needs change. We want to make sure that we are able to hear feedback from our staff and patients and change our course appropriately to match their needs and priorities. This will allow us to learn and iterate as we go. On this we will work to the best practice of Government Digital Services, NHS Digital and NHSX.
Doing things once across the group
We will take every opportunity to provide solutions, processes, suggestions, and learning once for both hospitals. We want to build links between both Trusts to build on our individual strengths, whilst making sure that we don’t duplicate. Just imagine how much faster we’ll improve things if we are doing things once for both hospitals!
Communicating and engaging throughout
We want to make sure that as we are developing new solutions we will engage with both our patients and staff and the wider community to involve them in our design and roll-out process. Beyond that, we know that it’s really important for people to know what is available, what is coming, and when – in non- technical language.