Linear programming and The Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Simplicity Chocolate Cake’ recipe – can you name a more unexpected duo?
No, I’ve not lost the plot. I’ve simply had an epiphany about how to describe an approach to improving service delivery in health and social care – while chatting to my mother about work over morning tea.
My mother – who was the head of maths at my high school and continues to be a prolific advocate for women in STEM – is a great source of inspiration to me.
On this day, we were in deep discussion about the world of service delivery and organisation, pondering chosen interventions and their direct influence on specific outcomes.
We agreed that the meticulous research involved in choosing evidence-based clinical interventions is an essential aspect of providing high quality care.
But the catch?
Whilst you and your team may have the most incredible expertise and pride yourselves in delivering the most up to date, evidence-informed interventions … none of that will be effective if the service delivery models in which your interventions exist are not up to scratch.
It was a complex topic, but with cake on my mind (reader: my mum is an excellent baker) I was inspired to draw attention to this quandary.
I wondered, what’s the recipe for success here? How can health and social care staff ensure that the exceptional care and support interventions they deliver will have the best possible chance of impact for the individuals they serve?
Let’s break it down (or slice it up).
Understanding the complexity
In health and social care, the effectiveness of care and support interventions is reliant on a multitude of variables.
As health and social care providers, we put a lot of effort into finding the right clinical interventions for specific problems. It’s all about understanding if intervention Y can achieve outcome X, backed by rigorous research – all the while trying to match X and Y to the individual’s particular context and needs.
This meticulous exploration gives us confidence that the interventions we select for our clients will bring about the desired impact.
But, no matter how evidence-based our chosen interventions are, success ultimately relies on the service delivery model they operate in.
Crucially, the parameters of that model (the type of clients we serve, financial constraints, length of stay etc) determine whether our service can truly optimise evidence-based care and achieve desired client outcomes.
Unravelling the challenge
The challenge lies in understanding what the essential variables are and how they individually and collectively affect service delivery models.
Without this understanding, it’s like trying to bake a cake without a trusted recipe – there’s no clear, step-by-step guide to optimise client outcomes within your service delivery models.
After hearing me ramble on, my mum, being the mathematician she is, suggested, “So, you need linear programming!”.
The power of linear programming
Linear programming is a clever mathematical optimisation technique that helps find the best possible solution for a given problem.
It uses modelling to figure out which variables need tweaking and to what extent in order to achieve a specific outcome.
This powerful tool enables decision-makers to make optimal choices by considering multiple factors and constraints simultaneously. It has been successfully applied across various industries to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and maximise profits.
So, why don’t we use it in health and social care?
As a matter of fact this has been done. Many years ago, as part of my PhD, I was part of an incredible team that did just that. We interviewed and surveyed a stack of health and social care professionals, managers and leaders. We did a policy and systematic review to identify all the possible variables that we thought contributed to successful service delivery models for older people who needed rehabilitation or enablement care. We then quantified these and then measured patient outcomes (Therapy Outcome Measures); staff outcomes (workforce dynamics questionnaire); and service outcomes (length of stay, cost) over a six month time frame.
We made a key assumption, which was, the staff delivering their interventions were doing so using best practice principles and up to date evidence-based care.
We wanted to know: if staff are delivering best practice care, what were the most game changing service delivery and organisation levers that impacted on patient, staff and service outcomes?
We (I can only take some credit here) chucked everything into a fancy multiple regression analyses formula (aka linear programming) and waited with anticipation for the results.
So, what did we find?
Well…
To be continued another day!
BUT rather than giving you this exact recipe to follow, you would be best to create your own algorithm.
Creating your own linear program
So, if optimising your service delivery model was a ‘Simplicity Chocolate Cake’ recipe, what steps would it contain?
- Clearly understand the problem you are facing.
- Clearly identify what it would look like if that problem no longer existed (create a single objective you are trying to achieve).
- Define all the possible variables and constraints that might come into play when trying to achieve your objective?
- Identify which mix of these variables and constraints are most likely to have the greatest impact on achieving your objective and work out ways to address those.
Linear programming and the Unplex way
Linear programming is a great example of one of the reasons why I started Unplex.
It’s one of the ways in which I see the world – as a researcher and strategist, through a mix of logic, systems, colour and graphics.
A lot of the methods I use stem from linear programming, but because the problems we encounter are so complex, we create ‘logic-based’ strategic plans for your organisation using words and numbers.
The benefit of using logic and linear programming fundamentals to inform strategy is that we can:
- Create data systems that then help to gauge the magnitude of problems over time.
- Track our strategic planning activities to monitor if they are actually doing something about the problem.
I love using my passion for logic and systems to help you simplify and re-route complex workforce and service delivery roadblocks – so that you can deliver more and better care to the individuals you serve.
You can read more about my approach here.
Need some help doing this work?
If you’re ready for a step-by-step guide to optimise client outcomes within your service delivery models, we can help.
At Unplex we work alongside you and your team to turn your complex problems into solutions you can implement.
We’d love to get to know you – head on over to our Connect page to join our newsletter, or send us an email at hello@unplex.com.au and we’ll be in touch!