Managing quality in community health care services

Community health care services provide vital care out of hospital for millions of people. From children’s services to care for older people and end-of-life support, the community sector plays a key part in meeting the challenges facing our health and care system. This report presents findings from a small-scale study into how quality is managed in community services. It explores how community care providers define and measure quality and recommends important next steps to support better measurement and management of quality.

F@ce: a team-based, person-centred intervention for rehabilitation after stroke supported by information and communication technology – a feasibility study

Despite encouraging data about declining stroke incidence, on a global level the aging population and accumulating risk factors contribute to an increasing lifetime risk of stroke. Per the Global Burden of Disease 2016 Lifetime Risk of Stroke Collaborators, the mean global lifetime risk of stroke increased from 22.8% in 1990 to 24.9% in 2016, a relative increase of 8.9% (95% CI, 6.2%–11.5%) after accounting for the competing risk of death of any cause other than stroke.

Globally, there is a growing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), including mobile phones, tablets and computers, which are being integrated into people’s daily activities. An ICT-based intervention called F@ce was developed in order to provide a structure for the process in stroke rehabilitation and facilitate change by integrating a global problem-solving strategy using SMS alerts. The aim of the study was to evaluate the ...

Bridging the Gap: A Mixed Methods Study Investigating Caregiver Integration for People with Geriatric Syndrome

Transitions of care between acute hospital and community settings are points of vulnerability for people with geriatric syndrome. Routinely including informal caregivers into the transition processes may mitigate risk. Guidance for operational aspects of caregiver inclusion is currently lacking in healthcare policy and fails to address the barriers faced by caregivers and healthcare professionals.

This pilot mixed method study adopts an implementation science lens to “bridge the gap” between top-down policy recommendations and the realities experienced by healthcare professionals who provide transitional care. It explores how informal caregiver integration can be better achieved. In the past, caregiver integration literature has focused the role of nurses and case managers in this role. However, in true person-centred integrated care, discharge planning and caregiver inclusion is the responsibility of every healthcare professional. This study conducted a pilot to explore these concepts and challenges in physiotherapists at a private hospital in New South Wales ...

Patient-centered care in musculoskeletal practice: Key elements to support clinicians to focus on the person

Musculoskeletal rehabilitation, including physiotherapy, needs to move towards a broader biopsychosocial understanding of musculoskeletal conditions and the delivery of high-value care for people with persistent pain conditions, in which a patient-centered approach is a key feature. However, it has been reported that clinicians experience difficulties with integrating patient-centered care principles into their clinical practice. Based on a focused symposium about patient-centered care for patients with musculoskeletal conditions, held during the online 2021 World Physiotherapy Congress, the purpose of this article is to share key elements of the content of this symposium with a wider audience, aimed at enabling clinicians to enhance patient-centeredness in their current practice. These key elements include establishing meaningful connections, deciding together and self-management support. Moreover, challenges on patient-centered care in low/middle income countries will be discussed and recommendations to implement patient-centered care in clinical practice will be provided.

Highlights

• Patient-centered care is important in people ...