Integrated Operations Centre

The vision for the Integrated Operations Centre (IOC) is to identify what is happening in our health systems at a glance, in order to provide real-time visibility and inform data-led decision-making. This means optimising demand and supply across the healthcare offering to ensure patient and staff safety. The design and approach for the IOC is to build a fit for purpose, and forward looking healthcare centre that will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of patients and staff across the health system.

Why IOC - New Zealand Health Strategy: Future Direction:

This sets out five strategic themes, one of which is ‘smart system’. This includes developing effective innovations, taking advantage of opportunities offered by new and emerging technologies, having data and smart information systems that improve evidence-based decisions, and having reliable, accurate information that is available at the point of care.

The IOC supports this by having real time data that is used to drive clinical and operational decision-making.

Ways of Working with clients:

• Our process starts with a customer/user-centric lens; looking at a future-state desirable solution. To ensure we can execute innovation with confidence, we must overlay the solution with a business case (viability) and ensure sufficient internal capability (feasibility) for the IOC.
• Our process uses the double diamond (4Ds) framework, establishing a rhythm of divergent and convergent thinking necessary to arrive at meaningful outcomes.
• We utilise multi-disciplinary teams with various skills and mind-sets, involving system users from executive level through to clinical and scheduling staff, and key stakeholders in our design process.

Our Approach:

• We define the IOC vision, and review learnings from the ideas of others through research and ‘service safaris’ - members of client design teams have attended ‘service safaris’ to experience various Integrated Operations Centres and draw learnings and parallels worth considering for our own project. We also draw inspiration and best practice from international examples.
• Developing a high level design for the IOC – this means defining the enablers that are critical to the success of the IOC.
• Establishing the IOC – this means developing a low-fidelity model to show how the IoC might work for the users groups involved. This includes business process and escalation, technology capability, people capability, culture and change management, training, communication and prioritisation, and benefits management measurement.