Person Level Information Costing Systems (PLICS)

Person-level information and costing systems (PLICS) work in tandem with Service Line Reporting (SLR) and refer to NHS costing methods that use the specific interactions a patient has and the events related to their care. This sits in contrast with some historic methods that simply use averages and apportionments – offering less accuracy. Ultimately, PLICS is about activity-based reporting, and accuracy. The NHS Costing Transformation Programme is currently mandating PLICS across all providers.

Our PLICS experience (and non-PLICS costing systems too) is extensive, and our team over 20 years has worked in and with all types of provider (including social care) and most of the PLICS software options. We have supported a number of NHS and non NHS organisations both in the UK and overseas with planning, developing and implementing PLICS.

Our services include providing:

• Advice to Trusts regarding PLICS tenders for replacement systems (including designing the ITT to focus on your own particular needs, and avoiding unsuccessful bidder challenges later).
• Project management (or general advice) regarding the implementation (including how to tweak the “off the shelf” systems, design output and stage the rollout to maximise clinical ownership during the crucial “momentum” phase).
• Developing and writing up successful and robust Business Cases.
• Similar advice to the above, but with an established system, not a new implementation, including a gap analysis report using our unique 50 point template.
• Working with Trusts on the use of PLICS after the output is finished. How do you get clinicians interested? How do you link outcomes or pathways? How do you generate real cost savings?
• Planning, developing, procuring and implementing PLICS.
• Training and development.
• CCG implications.

We can also provide a managed service solution for you, covering for staff temporarily or using a mixture of on and off-site working to manage your costing process for you permanently.

The benefits of our solutions are that:

• Experienced expertise is provided which helps with planning and implementation and also helps to avoid any potential pitfalls.
• Clinicians, managers and service leads are engaged.
• Knowledge transfer means your team's skill levels are improved for the long term.
• The project progresses flexibly, in line with your workload's peaks and troughs.
• Provide quicker implementation than is normally achieved through in-house solutions.

Our team have supported many NHS organisations with planning and developing PLiCS plus outside the NHS we have supported a private hospital in Dublin, Isle of Man Department of Health, Gibraltar Health Authority and the Government of Jersey. The latter is a full PLICS implementation across health and social care and has extended to other departments.

This work was also supported our review of Radiotherapy Services in Jersey.

We have supported with the procurement of a number of commercial software solutions but also with designing and developing stand alone hospital systems.