Healthcare

Years of anthropological research into the world of people with dementia and their families shows that the psycho/social domain is often underexposed in treatment and counselling. In the Social Trials supported by the VWS Langer Thuis programme, PwC, in collaboration with Tao of Care, is helping 8 regions to work towards new national standards for people with dementia and their families. Developing and initiating practical initiatives from the Social Approach to Dementia (Anne-Mei The), adapting the network management and funding, and monitoring and evaluating the process, quality and costs demonstrate the success of the approach. The involvement of our network to stakeholders (municipalities, care providers, health insurance companies, care offices, etc.) in the regions is essential to enable network transformation and budget shift from the common goal of improving quality of life, making better use of labour market potential, postponing admission to nursing homes and reducing care consumption.

Read more about 'Social Trials' for dementia care

After several mergers and a growth in size, a disability care organisation needed more connection between the different department units, between professionals and client groups and between professionals themselves. In order to be able to continue providing high-quality care in the future, PwC was asked to set a clear strategic course for the next five years. During this process, we looked at the identity of the organisation, the requirements of clients, relatives, employees and other internal and external stakeholders, and how the organisation can anticipate external trends and challenges. PwC produced a strategy document and vision (including quantitative analyses) in which clear strategic lines are described and what these mean for clients (from the perspective of personas and their client journey), employees and the organisation. Throughout the entire strategy process, PwC worked extensively with groups of employees from within the organisation.

Institutions and government agencies often communicate in a way that is not understood by everyone. This makes it more difficult for vulnerable groups to participate in society and as a result costs will increase. An organisation responsible for mental disability has devised a digital solution to this problem that helps authorities and government agencies to make their language understandable to as many people as possible, including people with a mild intellectual disability or limited linguistic skills. The organisation asked PwC to help convert the concept into a successful platform with broad funding. We used the Lean Start-up approach, which focuses on design thinking and agile methodology. We focused on increasing the independence of the target group, user-friendliness of the platform, integration of the platform within the communication processes of institutions and government agencies, and identification of valuable functionalities within the platform.

A group of care organisations (combination of hospitals and long-term care) observed a fragmentation in the organisation and information of patient care. This is an undesirable situation from a quality and cost perspective. They asked PwC to contribute to the strategy development and to formulate the business case for formalising and implementing a partnership with which they would facilitate the management and care needs of clients with the support of a digital platform. The platform focuses on a broad group of vulnerable multimorbid clients and builds a bridge between the various chain partners by offering, amongst other things, remote triage, coordinated early warning, client monitoring and remote support of care providers. Within the project, PwC was responsible for developing initiatives with healthcare professionals; examples include formulating business cases, organising inspiration sessions on technological possibilities, connecting different organisations and working methods, formulating a programme of requirements for technological suppliers, supporting the supplier's decision-making process and prioritising initiatives and formulating a roadmap for implementation.

An elderly care institution faced challenges around the strategic deployment of staff. They observed a changing client population, more complex demands for care, an aging workforce, staff turnover and labour shortages, and the large proportion of (expensive) self-employed people who have to be deployed to meet the daily demand for care. To this end, they have asked PwC to provide insight into the development of the workforce over the next five years and the development of scenarios. Based on the findings, including a high outflow among employees, low internal mobility, low percentage of full-time contracts - especially among young employees - and low utilisation of the internal labour market, PwC succeeded in defining a new staff planning stategy.

Physicians have a large number of different therapies available for treating multiple sclerosis (MS). As a result, they therefore often start with the most commonly used therapy. If the symptoms worsen, then they try the next one. The aim is to stabilise the progress of the disease. Physicians need information and experience from others working in the field so that they no longer base their choice of therapy solely on their own judgment. Patients also want a second opinion. They want to start immediately with the treatment that will be most effective.

A database of treatments for thousands of MS patients has led to an initial version of the PHREND predictive model. PHREND stands for Predictive Healthcare with Real-world Evidence for Neurological Disorders. In consultation with the patient, physicians can use this model to select the most appropriate therapy.

Read more about PHREND predictive model