ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: As beneficiaries of health service improvement initiatives, patients should have their perspectives of and gaps in care elicited to inform and guide the development of quality indicators to assess health care services. The purpose of this study was to identify patient perspectives amenable for conversion into measurable inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care quality indicators. METHODS: Crohn's and Colitis Canada's Promoting Access and Care through Centres of Excellence (PACE) program organized four patient focus groups in three Canadian provinces in 2016 to capture the perspective of patients on IBD care services. The RQDA package in R was used for transcript analysis, theme identification and for building a theme hierarchy based on the number of citations. The main themes were converted into patient-derived quality indicators. RESULTS: Several perceived unmet needs were elicited from participants that could be converted into measurable quality indicators. These unmet needs addressed the need for information, access to multidisciplinary services and specialized care, and access to psychological support. Patient unmet needs informed the selection of nine quality indicators that were included in the final list of PACE indicators to assess IBD care services across Canada. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides a detailed description of patient perspectives on IBD care services that were an integral part of the development of measurable indicators of the quality of care in the context of a universal health care system.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: There are significant geographic disparities in the delivery of IBD healthcare in Ontario which may ultimately impact health outcomes. Telemedicine-based health services may potentially bridge gaps in access to gastroenterologists in remote and underserved areas. METHODS: We conducted a needs assessment for IBD specialist care in Ontario using health administrative data. As part of a separate initiative to address geographic disparities in access to care, we described the development and implementation of our Promoting Access and Care through Centres of Excellence (PACE) Telemedicine Program. Over the first 18 months, we measured wait times and potential cost savings. RESULTS: We found substantial deficiencies in specialist care early in the course of IBD and continuous IBD care in regions where the number of gastroenterologists per capita were low. The PACE Telemedicine Program enabled new IBD consultations within a median time of 17 days (interquartile range [IQR], 7-32 days) and visits for active IBD symptoms with a median time of 8.5 days (IQR, 4-14 days). Forty-five percent of new consultations and 83% of patients with active IBD symptoms were seen within the target wait time of two weeks. Telemedicine services resulted in an estimated cost savings of $47,565 among individuals who qualified for Ontario's Northern Travel Grant. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of telemedicine services for IBD is highly feasible and can reduce wait times to see gastroenterologists that meet nationally recommended targets and can lead to cost savings.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The number of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]-related visits to the emergency department [ED] is increasing in North America. This study evaluates the relationship between access to specialists and utilization of ED services. METHODS: We conducted a population-based study of all IBD patients in Ontario in 2014-2015 to measure utilization of non-emergency IBD care by specialists [NICS] and ED visits. After characterizing regional variation in access to gastroenterologists and region-wide implementation of NICS, we constructed regression models to determine whether they were predictors of individual utilization of NICS and ED services. RESULTS: The number of gastroenterologists per 1000 IBD patients varied geographically, ranging from 1.13 to 10.65, as did the region-wide proportion of patients who received NICS, ranging from 21% to 52%. Compared with those with low access to gastroenterologists, those living in areas with moderate (odds ratio [OR], 2.37; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.27-2.47) and high [OR, 1.83; 95% CI: 1.71-1.95] access were more likely to receive NICS. The risk of visits to the ED was lower among those residing in regions with moderate [OR, 0.78; 95% CI: 0.75-0.82] and high access [OR, 0.74; 95% CI: 0.69-0.80] to gastroenterologists and in regions where implementation of NICS was not low [OR, 0.78; 95% CI: 0.75-0.81]. CONCLUSIONS: Poor access to outpatient IBD specialist care contributes to IBD-related ED visits. Strategies to increase specialist access may reduce the utilization of emergency services.
