When presenting a business case to the Trust board / evaluation team it is important to ensure you have answered all the questions they are likely to ask.

Give your business case proper consideration involving all the key stakeholders within your organisation. For an equipment library this must include representatives from all areas wishing to receive the service (medical, surgical, paediatric, outpatients etc), and also finance, HR, Supplies, IT, facilities, estates and ebme. Give the scheme a title and name the originator of the idea/concept.

Whatever business case is being developed it is important to consider the risks of carrying out the implementation (or not).

To ensure the scheme goes well:

• Set regular meetings (i.e. 2 weekly)
• Set a start and end date for the business case.
• Ensure terms of reference are written for the stakeholders on the team.
• Ensure minutes are taken to indicate who is responsible for carrying out actions.

Proposition:

A managed equipment library delivering general use medical equipment to wards and departments reducing holdings of device models, durables and consumables. The library could be stocked with standardised items such as infusion pumps, syringe drivers, ripple mattresses, pulse oximeters, and monitors.

Service Impact:

This proposal will improve patient care, reduce risk, ease training needs and make training easier to deliver and monitor.

Financial Impact:

The costs of setting up an equipment library are estimated at £xxx,000.00. These costs include recurrent costs of £xx,000.00 for pay and £xx,000.00 for non-pay.

There will be a need for a one-off capital investment of £xxx,000.00 for equipment purchase and refurbishment of a suitable facility (facility already identified)

Risks:

Risks of not approving this business case. Staff continue to buy devices on an individual ward by ward basis, reducing standardisation and increasing costs and risk of misuse. Training will be made even more difficult as the asset size increases. (Asset size increase is a national trend)

Risks associated with approving this business case.

Financial and clinical risk if old equipment is not decommissioned (decommissioning plan required). Risks associated with misuse of new equipment (Training/commissioning plan required) Risk of selecting wrong equipment for library (All stakeholders will be consulted before purchase)

Financial Benefits (time-phased):

Over a 5 year period it expected that the trust will benefit financially through standardisation. This will reduce the cost of equipment purchase through agreement with the supplier to supply devices for 5 years. Consumable items will be bought in larger volume and therefore cheaper. The number of models/devices will reduce, reducing the need for stock to sit on shelves.

Expenditure: £xx,000.00 Recurring: £xx,000.00 Non-recurring: £xx,000.00 Area of Financial benefit: £xx,000.00 5 year Projection: £xx,000.00 Pay: £xx,000.00 Non-Pay: £xx,000.00

Risk Register

(1 is low, 10 is high)
The clinical risk officer / health and safety officer have assessed the risks and recommend.

Risk:

Likelihood: Impact: Exposure (L x I)

Authorisation:

Are the Trust Board required to approve this business case?

Have Stakeholders been consulted ? Yes

Proposal - Signed: Review Team Lead Proposal - Counter Signed: Project manager Authorisation - Signed on behalf of Trust Board (Chief Exec/director of finance)

Board Decision Yes/No Approved for immediate implementation Approved for deferred implementation More research needed Rejected

Is this a Product Standardisation opportunity? Yes/No

Next Steps:

Implementation plan
What to buy? When to buy? Who to train? When to train? Etc.

Current Spend pa £xxx,000.00 Projected Implementation start date (s) Projected Implementation end date (s)

Benefits (£k)

2005/6 Investment of £xxx,000.00 2006/7 to 2010/11 Saving of £xxx,000.00 (A detailed financial evaluation needs to be prepared and agreed with finance)

Implementation Resource, Cost & Timing Issues:

Supporting Documentation: Detailed information supporting the business case such as life costs for equipment and consumables are available for scrutiny if required.

Stakeholders consulted: Discussion must take place as part of the business case development to ensure all stakeholder are in agreement with the business case and implementation plan outline.

Human Resources: Where new staff are required it is important to ensure that the personnel specification is drawn up in agreement with HR. Ensure any payroll issues are addressed and agreed with finance.

Are there any IT requirements? (i.e. Computers, intranet, software etc).

This is a model of a business case. It can be used to develop any type of proposal.