Service Alignment = Capacity match * Productivity match
Service alignment is a function of capacity match and productivity match. Unless both are close to 100%, your service will be materially misaligned.
Even when both your service and productivity match are at 90%, the resulting service alignment is only 81%. This level of misalignment has significant consequences.
Imagine a department requires 20,000 hours of activity to meet its patient demand (119 PAs). A capacity match of 90% means there are only 18,000 hours of capacity or expected activity. This is compounded further by the fact that only 90% of these expected hours are delivered. The result is that the service delivers 16,200 of the required 20,000 hours and either the waiting list grows or 3,800 hours of unplanned expensive activity need to be paid for.
How do you improve your service alignment?
Your service alignment depends on its capacity match and its productivity match. Monitoring and improving your capacity and productivity match is fundamental to improving your service alignment.
Improve its capacity match
If your service's capacity (consultant PAs and other staff contracts) is not matched to its patient demand you will inevitably need to compensate using expensive unplanned activity e.g. WLI's and in/outsourcing. By building a rightsize service plan you identify areas of over and undercapacity and better manage the capacity match. Patient demand can change rapidly and a service needs to needs to continually monitor and respond dynamically to these changes.
Improve its productivity match
Even if your capacity match is 100%, your service alignment can still be misaligned because of a poor productivity match. Baked into staff contracts are productivity assumptions. One PA is expected to deliver 168 hours of annual activity (in normal time). If your delivered hours are less than expected, these "lost" hours need to be covered with expensive unplanned additional activity. By understanding the sources of these activity leaks you can make operational changes to improve a barriers to productivity.
Service Alignment Process
A service alignment process monitors both your capacity match and productivity match throughout the financial year. If your service alignment starts to deteriorate, you can identify this early and understand the causes. Remedial action can then be focussed in the right areas to minimise costs of delivery, maximise income and stabilise waiting lists.
