Governance Award

This award is being made to an individual, team or organisation that has actively contributed to the development of best practice in the area of integrated governance or improved governance performance. 

Further detail on this Award can be found in HFMA’s 2008 Awards brochure.

Winner: Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust

An internal review of the way Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust recorded, managed and reported its performance management information has proved to be the springboard to an integrated performance and assurance framework – and the HFMA Governance Award for 2008.

The review, carried out in 2007/08, led to a link between performance management information and the trust’s assurance framework being established (linking performance outcomes to the trust’s objectives), as well as connecting performance, controls and risks identified in the assurance framework.

In its submission, Plymouth said its delivery of cancer service targets was one example where its new approach had paid dividends. A risk assessment found the complexity of pathways and data capture were significant issues. Control measures were implemented to manage these risks, including a patient tracking list.

The judges were impressed by the integration of performance management information. The examples provided by the trust had demonstrated the connection between objectives, performance outcomes and processes. They added: ‘The assurance framework had been upgraded to incorporate a real-time analysis of risk, control and assurance that had a dynamic relationship with performance reporting.

Further detail on the winning entry is available in the HFMA 2008 Awards Supplement.

What the judges said

“This is an embedded process and is changing culture at a number of levels. There is considerable scope for transferability of these practices to other healthcare organisations.”

Further detail on the entry requirements, judging criteria and judges for this particular award can be found in the HFMA 2008 Awards Brochure.