Dr Foster Intelligence

Managing long-term conditions

High-impact User Manager (HUM) - Reducing avoidable emergency admissions

"Before we had HUM our matrons were ploughing through patient records manually which was very labour intensive. This tool does this for them in the blink of an eye. We have also trained some of our GPs to use HUM and they can now see how much emergency admissions are costing their practice. This is a first and gives the GPs a real idea of the sort of savings that can be made through their practice-based commissioning plans. More importantly, it is better for patients as they get earlier clinical intervention which prevents unnecessary hospital admissions and helps to keep them well".

Barbara Kennedy, Chief Executive, Milton Keynes PCT

HUM provides real-time information at patient level, and enables the delivery of effective primary care to help reduce avoidable emergency admissions. The information can also be used to predict who will benefit from the case-management approach in the future.

What does HUM allow you to do?

• Access up-to-date information to build lists of potential patients by PCT or GP practice who are, or who may become, 'high impact' users of secondary care services
• Identify patients with conditions for which hospitalisation is considered at least partially preventable, e.g. ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACS), chronic conditions (asthma, COPD, diabetes) and acute conditions where immunisation can prevent illness
• Select various predictor values such as number and type of admissions, number of bed days used, tariff costs
• Drill down to individual patient records to analyse their admissions history and associated costs
• Focus on case management rather than data analysis and research

Next steps

• Take a tour of HUM
• Further information on HUM
• Download an online tutorial
• Buy HUM