The Right Decision Support Service (RDS)
Project impact
Over 180 web and mobile decision support tools
1,777,077 unique users registered; 10.4 million page views in 2023 alone
In 2023, 93% saw an impact on evidence informed practice
The Right Decision Service (RDS) is Scotland’s national decision support service for health and social care. Funded by the Scottish Government and owned by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, RDS provides digital tools for safe, timely healthcare decisions based on validated evidence and patient-centred outcomes.
The Right Decision Service (RDS) is the national decision support service for Scotland’s health and social care. It was endorsed and funded by the Scottish Government as the platform for delivery of the national decision support programme.
The RDS was significantly developed at DHI over a number of years. It secured funding from the Scottish Government to develop a platform to support decision-support products and the development of new products to support clinical services across the country.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) took on the national ownership role for the Right Decision Service in 2023.
The mission of the RDS is to be the Once for Scotland source of digital tools which enable staff to make safe, timely decisions ‘on the go,’ based on validated evidence and outcomes that matter to people.
The RDS is a change agent for the delivery of value-based health and care. It brings together evidence from: validated research, practice experience, and the lived experiences of patients and service users, embedding this evidence in decision-ready formats through RDS tools such as web and mobile apps and electronic care records.
Summary
Partners
Adoption at scale as a business-as-usual service: the RDS is embedded as a core enabler of health and care delivery in the majority of Scottish NHS Boards and a growing number of health and social care partnerships. This embedding in mainstream service delivery is now consolidated through the transition of RDS from its innovation phase in DHI to HIS as a mainstream business-as-usual service.
Growing impact in the form of savings in time and resources, improved safety and quality of care, workforce skills and improved processes. These are underpinned by widespread usage across sectors and strong policy mandates for national delivery.
Scottish Government Digital Health and Care noted that this “is the first example of a digital health and care programme that has been trialled and piloted with our partners, through to mainstream delivery led by a national NHS Board, and highlights the success of our collaborative approach.” 12 of the 14 territorial boards, 6 health and social care partnerships, 4 national NHS Boards, 3 national social care organisations, 8 national programmes and 3 third sector organisations are using the RDS to deliver decision support tools that support their priorities.
Impact & value
The RDS continues to be developed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). At the point RDS was transferred to HIS, it had progressed hugely. The Right Decision Service received official recognition in the form of the 2022 Digital Public Services Award. This award is granted in collaboration by Holyrood Communications, Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government, for a digital public sector innovation that has delivered measurable impact in the past year.
RDS has helped to release practitioner time and the optimal use of resource. In a survey of 36 RDS implementation leads across 12 organisations conducted in January 2023, .77% confirmed that RDS tools are enabling better use of available resource. .64% report that RDS tools are saving staff time 62% state that RDS tools have reduced costs. “Streamlining access to guidance and evidence-based decision support so that it is instantly accessible when and where clinicians need it.” RDS has also led to improved safety and quality of care: 79% of RDS implementation leads indicate that RDS tools are already improving patient safety in their organisations. 74% advise that RDS tools have improved quality of patient care, and 65% indicate that they are driving up consistent evidence-based practice.
This work is being taken forward by Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Progress to date
Staff related to the project
Next steps
