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A game-changer for NHS finance

Paul Briddock, director of policy at the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), explains how an interactive training tool can help NHS staff develop financial awareness in an engaging, collaborative atmosphere.

We’re all aware that it’s critical to the future success and sustainability of the NHS for staff to have a clear understanding of how money flows through the system, how services are paid for and how best value can be obtained. 

This is easier said than done though. But one way progress is being made is via a new tool the HFMA has developed, which trains both clinicians and non-clinicians to enhance their financial nous and understanding: the Operating Game. 

It’s literally a game-changer for NHS finance and transforms the way clinicians and non-clinicians interact in their daily decision-making by increasing their financial awareness and improving collaboration through game-play, helping them achieve the best financial and clinical outcomes. 

The board game itself is a face-to-face, team-based experience based on running an acute hospital and involves players making collective, strategic decisions about some of the real-life challenges faced by healthcare professionals working in acute and emergency care. 

Adapting strategy 

Throughout the game, players learn how their response to daily pressures (such as a lack of staff, bed availability and outbreaks of infection) can impact on managing patient care standards and resources – and how big an effect their decisions can have. Key steps include appointing roles, planning, managing the hospital, recording performance and finally reviewing performance, all of which are encouraged to be challenged and questioned by participants to enable them to adapt their strategy and improve in the following round. 

Chris Ellison, the directorate manager at Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh FT, has used HFMA’s Operating Game on several occasions. He says: “Finance can be such a dry subject to anyone outside, but the Operating Game puts it in a much more user-friendly context. It’s a completely different approach to anything else I’ve seen, in that it brings everyone face-to-face and encourages them to get involved in an exciting way. It’s an incredibly powerful tool and is certainly the best financial training tool I’ve come across. 

“The benefits are immediately obvious – it works in such a way that it’s open to all members of staff, it’s face-to-face so nothing can be misconstrued, it’s very visual so it encourages everyone to think about what they’re doing while they do it, and it puts a face to the finance function. Before we trialled it, we found that other departments never really understood how we work and how we can help them make the best of their service, but now it has hugely improved that relationship and we’ve seen a much greater level of engagement.” 

Direct financial benefits 

Ellison continued: “In terms of the financial benefits the game has brought us, our temporary agency staff spend was reduced in the year we started to introduce the game and many of our loss-making budgets actually went into profit. There was nothing else we were doing that we could possibly attribute towards these positive changes, so for us to see a definite improvement in spending patterns has been great. It’s evident that when staff can practically see the impact that spending on agency staff has on an organisation’s finances – and in turn the level of service they provide – then they quickly learn to adapt. 

“The way the financial system works is that if you’re spending more efficiently then that definitely improves the level of service you can offer, and we’ve seen improvements across the board. As well as a better link-up between outpatient care, clinical staff and overhead staff, we have also seen a big financial upswing in sectors as diverse as emergency care and estate facilities. 

“Since we brought the game in-house in 2012, we have used it in training for more than 170 people across a range of departments; everyone from nurses and operation managers to consultants and clinicians. We used it on a regular basis 10 times a year to begin with and it has proved to be a very powerful tool. The vast majority of staff, 98%, say they ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that they have had positive learning outcomes as a result of it. People are actually ringing us up to say they want to get involved and learn more, which has never happened before.” 

HFMA is making the Operating Game available to all organisations across the NHS as part of its commitment to help raise awareness amongst finance and non-finance staff alike of the impact of their day-to-day decisions, increase collaboration between clinicians and non-clinicians and help make savings at a time when every part of the NHS is under immense pressure to do so.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

W: www.hfma.org.uk/events-and-conferences/boardgame/

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