When it comes to the availability and suitability of basic technology, our assessment found extreme differences between participating organisations. While Wi-Fi access for healthcare and social care professionals was generally reported to be at least partially available, Wi-Fi for patients and service users was available only sporadically for some organisations (see grey bar in adjacent […]

As part of the assessment, staff completing a separate staff survey component consistently reported generic digital benefits around workplace productivity and efficiency, although so far, those capabilities translated into more direct patient/service user time only for some organisations. Most organisations have adopted skills development as a necessary component of their digital maturity journey. Most often, […]

Across the digital maturity assessment, organisations who have embraced digital ways of working as part of their management infrastructure and can draw on digital resources to support their plans and decisions, outperformed organisations who operate in a less embedded way. Key attributes for effective digital management included embracing digital ways of working both amongst leadership […]

Organisations who scored high in the Business and Clinical Intelligence category tended to also score higher for management-related categories (Strategic Alignment, Leadership, Resourcing, Governance, Information Governance), supporting the hypothesis that data-driven approaches support better management of digital transformation and digital operations.

Making services accessible to those who use them via digital channels wherever appropriate is a strategic objective for the healthcare and social care sectors in Scotland. Most participating organisations have made inroads into their digital service offerings, but for many, there is still some way to go before those objectives are met. Quantitatively, only a […]

Awareness of the environmental impact of digital operations and digital solutions to managing organisations’ overall impact are beginning to emerge, although adoption is currently not consistent across Scotland. Our data shows that more organisations’ initial concerns were with travel reduction, and the amount of paper and energy their digital processes consume. Some have also turned […]

Across assessment topics covering different aspects of core capabilities such as Orders & Results Management, Medicines Optimisation and Decision Support, our data shows a consistent picture characterised by well-implemented core capabilities and a lack of more modern, recent functionality. In Orders & Results Management, most core order types (e.g., for laboratory tests or imaging) are […]

Looking at the data from the digital maturity assessment at theme level (e.g., aggregated from 20 sections into 3 categories – Readiness, Capabilities and Infrastructure), the national picture divides participating health and care systems into three groups: Leaders, Mid-Field and Followers.

Compared like-for-like (e.g., comparing only questions that appeared in both the 2019 and 2023 assessments), progress has been made versus results from the previous assessment in 2019, particularly in the areas of Orders & Results Management, Transfers of Care, Medicine Optimisation and Remote & Assistive Care. Progress in the latter section was partially driven by […]

Analysis of those parts of the assessment concerned with adoption for certain key metrics (e.g., Digital health records, structured data, medicines administration logs, digital care handovers, adoption of digital channels, use of service user IDs and Wi-Fi availability, amongst others) shows that the nation is currently ‘mid-journey’ towards digital maturity. Topics around providers’ ability to […]