Case Study: Spark Medical

We spoke to Dave Hartley-Large, Head of Governance at Spark Medical, about how Radar Healthcare has helped them move from manual ways of working to digital. Spark Medical are a North West based independent paramedic led ambulance provider. They moved from manual to digital ways of working through Radar Healthcare, and saw a large improvement in coverage of incidents which were reported.

Dave Hartley-Large, Head of Governance at Spark Medical

Starting with the background

Dave has been a registered nurse for 15 years, and in this time worked for the NHS as a surgical nurse. He shifted to governance roles where he looked at operational and governance issues across a large NHS trust and any adjoining sites. 3 years ago, Dave joined Spark as Head of Governance where he reviews all the contracts and ensures the company as a whole has robust governance mechanisms in place.

Spark Medical started up in 2018 as a first aid provider to events. In the last few years, they have grown rapidly and now have many clients including North West ambulance service. Spark provide both urgent and non-urgent patient transport services where they must ensure they have a good flow of operations to maintain optimum performance. They became CQC registered and had their first inspection in 2019.

Prior to Radar Healthcare, Spark Medical primarily worked on paper and Excel spreadsheets. They also used an incident reporting platform which did the job in the early stages but as they grew from 2-3 ambulances out on the road every day to over 10, they needed something more sophisticated.

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Why Radar Healthcare?

For Spark, Radar Healthcare was the most cost effective but also offered more than other choices when they made a comparison.

We have fantastic relationships with the staff at Radar Healthcare, who were transparent and highly supportive during the onboarding process.

Dave Hartley-Large, Head of Governance at Spark Medical

Spark Medical’s staff are often on the road so having access to Radar Healthcare remotely via tablets or other devices was an incredible advantage. They found that the number of incidents reported increased 775%!

The number of incidents reported increased from an average of 4 per month to 35 with the introduction of Radar Healthcare - meaning the CQC can see we’re accurately reporting and actioning incidents to drive continuous improvement.

Dave Hartley-Large, Head of Governance at Spark Medical

To maintain their standards, Spark Medical use Radar Healthcare for auditing. If an audit score comes out too low, they set actions for relevant staff to follow up and ensure they learn and improve. An example of an audit Spark Medical use Radar Healthcare for are clinical audits.

Radar Healthcare has saved us 4 hours every month on clinical audits, with the added benefit of no admin help being required, meaning we can focus more time on providing care.

Dave Hartley-Large, Head of Governance at Spark Medical

Running an ambulance service means that Spark use Radar Healthcare’s mapping feature to document any vehicle defects or damage. They upload an image of one of their ambulances and can easily pinpoint where the issues are. They can then notify their mechanic and insurance companies easily through Radar Healthcare, saving communication time and in turn speeding up the process.

Recommending Radar Healthcare to other ambulance services

Dave said he would recommend Radar Healthcare because the customer support has been phenomenal, and the software is easy to use with data right at the end of your fingertips.