The commissioning and benchmarking tool
Use the anticoagulation therapy service commissioning and benchmarking tool to determine the level of service that might be needed locally and to calculate the cost of commissioning the service, as described below
Identify indicative local service requirements
The indicative benchmark based on the national average of the population requiring anticoagulation therapy is 1.40%.
The commissioning and benchmarking tool helps you to assess local service requirements using the indicative benchmark as a starting point. With knowledge of your local population and its demographic, you can amend the benchmark to better reflect your local circumstances. For example, if your population is significantly younger or older than the average population, or has a significantly lower or higher rate of atrial fibrillation, you may need to provide services for relatively fewer or more people.
Review current commissioned activity
You may already commission an anticoagulation therapy service for your population. The tool provides tables that you can populate to help you calculate your current commissioned activity and costs.
Identify future change in capacity required
Using the indicative benchmark provided, or your own local benchmark, you can use the commissioning and benchmarking tool to compare the activity that you might need to commission against your current commissioned activity. This will help you to identify the future change in capacity required. Depending on your assessment, your future provision may need to be increased or decreased.
Model future commissioning intentions and associated costs
You can use the commissioning and benchmarking tool to calculate the capacity and resources needed to move towards the benchmark level, and to model the required changes over a period of 4 years. Use the tool to calculate the level and cost of activity you intend to commission and to consider the settings in which the anticoagulation therapy service may be provided, comparing the costs of commissioning the service across the various settings. The tool is pre-populated with data on the potential recurrent and non-recurrent cost elements that may need to be considered in future service planning, which can be reviewed and amended to better reflect your local circumstances.
Commissioning decisions should consider both the clinical and economic viability of the service, and take into account the views of local people. Commissioning plans should also take into account the costs of monitoring the quality of the services commissioned.
This page was last updated: 31 March 2010
- Anticoagulation therapy service
- Commissioning an anticoagulation therapy service
- Specifying an anticoagulation therapy service
- Determining local service levels for an anticoagulation therapy service
- Assumptions used in estimating a population benchmark
- The commissioning and benchmarking tool
- Ensuring corporate and quality assurance
