Why take the course

For Senior Managers

When you submit your RTT reports are you confident that:

You have captured your clock stops accurately?
The data you are reporting is accurate?
Your staff are absolutely confident in their interpretation of the RTT Rules and Status Codes?
Your patients are being treated within their legal entitlement of 18 weeks from referral to treatment?

Can your Service Managers comfortably and accurately plan demand and capacity from your current PTLs?

If your PTLs contain unvalidated patient pathways you are more than likely reporting incorrectly.

True patients can be hidden amongst hundreds, sometimes thousands of open pathways – this means that true patients usually wait far longer than necessary – causing you to fail your RTT standards.

What will this course teach your staff?

An understanding of the National Health Service Constitution in relation to 18 Week RTT
The updated guidance re COVID-19
The updated guidance re the Clinical Prioritisation Programme
18 Week Referral to Treatment (RTT) rules – how and when to apply them
The 18 Week RTT Standard explained
The correct RTT Status codes to use – how and when to apply them
Administrative RTT events
How to validate a Patient Tracking List
What to look out for and when to escalate issues
Outpatient / Non-admitted, Inpatient / Admitted and Diagnostic rules
Straight to test patients explained
How to deal with patients who do not turn up for their appointments
Which patients are not covered by 18 Weeks RTT
How to deal with ‘Planned Patients’

How do we do it?

18 Week Referral to Treatment online training consists of five comprehensive training sections all with their own assessments and reporting suites.

Introduction to Referral to Treatment

This section imparts basic RTT knowledge and is specifically targeted at new starters and staff whose dealings with patient pathways are minimal but they still need to understand the concept of 18 Weeks and the consequences of failing to record information correctly and in real time. There are seven modules within the section which cover:

Introduction
Module 1 – Clock starts
Module 2 – Clock continues
Module 3- Clock stops
Module 4 – Activity that is not applicable to an RTT period
Module 5 – Patient initiated follow-ups (PIFUs)
Module 6 – Updating PAS

There are ten multiple-choice questions from a large pool of question and the pass mark for this assessment is set at 100%. As with all the assessments, once an attempt has been made there is a facility to revisit the assessment, which will show the questions that were asked, the answers that were given and a hyperlink to the module to visit and study the correct answer.

Referral to Treatment (RTT)

This section is the advanced RTT training and is aimed at staff who require a full understanding of the 18 Week Rules to enable them to deliver their role within the organisation. There are 17 modules within the section which mirror the patient pathway, they cover:

Module 1 – The NHS Constitution
Module 2 – 18 Week RTT definitions
Module 3 – Referrals
Module 4 – First Outpatient appointments
Module 5 – Outpatient clinic outcomes
Module 6 – Diagnostics as part of 18 Weeks
Module 7 – Direct access diagnostics
Module 8 – Pre-operative assessment
Module 9 – Clock pauses
Module 10 – Inpatient/day case
Module 11 – Patient Initiated follow-ups (PIFUs)
Module 12 – Administrative clock events
Module 13 – Planned procedures
Module 14 – Patient Tracking List (PTL) management
Module 15 – Activity that is not part of an RTT period
Module 16 – Referral to Allied Health Professionals
Interim Operational Guidance – Active Monitoring

The training will guide staff on what to do when a patient DNA’s, how to rebook, the rules around Non-Admitted, Admitted and Incompletes how to validate a PTL and what to look for within the data of a PTL to help manage pathways. We take staff through how to record patient pathways correctly using the appropriate National RTT Status codes – not all Hospitals use the same PAS but the RTT codes are the same for all systems.

We also write bespoke websites for organisations who don’t use the National RTT Status Codes, or who want the training to mirror their Patient Access Policy.

There are 20 multiple choice questions within the assessment from a large pool of questions and the pass mark is 90%.

Clinic Outcome Form

Whilst it is imperative that Admin and Clerical Staff understand the importance of 18 Weeks and how to administer decisions, Clinical Staff must also be made aware of the subject and how their practice affects the delivery of the National Standards. This module is aimed at Consultants, Junior Doctors (especially those at change over) and Nursing Staff. We help these staff members to understand 18 Weeks from a Clinical perspective and the importance of selecting the correct outcome on Clinic Outcome Forms to enable a smoother pathway for their patients.

There are ten questions within the assessment from a large pool of questions and the pass mark is 90%.

Fertility

We didn’t want to add Fertility to the main training and assessments as it is so specialised and it would be unfair to expect all staff to understand it, so for Trusts who offer Fertility services we have written a separate section and assessment.

There are ten questions from a large pool and the pass mark is 90%.

Dental

For those Trusts who offer Dental services we have compiled a training module to help to explain how to reach 18 Week RTT Standards within this specialty.

There are five multiple-choice questions (from a pool of 60 questions) and the pass mark is 100%.

How will our website benefit your staff?

They can study the training at their pace
Study the training on their home or office computer / tablet / smartphone
Take the assessment when they feel ready
If they fail, revisit the training until they are ready to retake
When they pass, they and you will have a certificate to prove competence
They can ask anonymous questions and we will publish the answers in our FAQ section for reference purposes
Continuous understanding of the rules
Keep up to date with changes in legislation
Revisit sections at any time during the length of their membership for refresher sessions
Be secure in the knowledge that they understand and can implement the rules to ensure a better patient experience

How will you know that our website has benefited your staff?

Apart from the fact that your open pathways should be correct, therefore your reporting should be accurate and your patients won’t have unnecessary waits – we provide you with performance management reports that will tell you;

If your staff have started to study the training that you have paid for
Their score on the assessments
How many times they attempted the assessment
The answers they selected on each question and if they were correct or incorrect
User performance – how each of your staff members are performing
Organisation performance – how your organisation as a whole is performing
How many times someone has failed the assessment(s)
Inform you of your overall pass rate
If a particular question is causing difficulty – this will also help us to word the questions in a different way to monitor it’s success
For mandatory training at your chosen interval – who is due to retake the training and the assessment(s)

Identified members of your staff will be given access to the performance management reports, which they can access at any time. This allows you to performance manage your staff.

We also offer classroom training, which has been designed to compliment the online training to help to embed the rules and how to apply them.