Implementation of a day-stay joint replacement pathway in an Australian regional public hospital: A descriptive study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the implementation, feasibility and safety of a day-stay joint replacement pathway in a regional public hospital in Australia. METHOD: Over a 12-month pilot period, a prospective descriptive analysis of consecutive patients undergoing total knee and hip arthroplasty was conducted. The number of eligible day-stay patients, proportion of successful same-day discharges and reasons for same-day failure to discharge were recorded. Outcome measures captured for all joint replacements across this period included length of stay (LoS), patient reported outcomes, complications and patient satisfaction. The implementation pathway as well as patient and staff identified success factors derived from interviews were outlined. RESULTS: Forty-one/246 (17%) patients booked for joint replacement surgery were eligible for day-stay and 21/41 (51%) achieved a successful same-day discharge. Unsuccessful same-day discharges were due to time of surgery too late in the day (7/20), no longer meeting same-day discharge criteria (11/20) and declined discharge same-day (2/20). Over the implementation period 65% (162/246) of all patients were discharged with a LoS of 2 days or less. Patient satisfaction for the day-stay pathway was high. Complication rates and patient-reported outcomes were equivalent across LoS groups. CONCLUSION: The day-stay joint replacement surgery pathway was feasible to implement, safe and acceptable to patients. Day-stay pathways have potential patient and system-level efficiency benefits.

Physiotherapists' opinions, barriers, and enablers to providing evidence-based care: a mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: Physiotherapists deliver evidence-based guideline recommended treatments only half of the time to patients with musculoskeletal conditions. Physiotherapists' behaviour in clinical practice are influenced by many cognitive, social, and environmental factors including time and financial pressures. Many initiatives aimed at improving physiotherapists' uptake of evidence-based care have failed to appreciate the context involved in clinical decisions and clinical practice. Therefore, we aimed to describe: i) opinions toward evidence; ii) how evidence is accessed; iii) factors influencing evidence access; iv) factors influencing evidence application, for physiotherapists working in regional areas. METHODS: We used a mixed-methods study with online survey and focus groups. We included registered physiotherapists in the survey and physiotherapists practising in regional New South Wales in the focus groups. Quantitative and qualitative data were used to inform all research objectives. We used eight domains of the Transtheoretical Domains Framework to design survey questions. We analysed quantitative and qualitative data in parallel, then integrated both sources through by developing a matrix while considering the Transtheoretical Domains Framework domains to generate themes. RESULTS: Fifty-seven physiotherapists participated in the study (survey only n = 41; focus group only n = 8; both survey and focus group n = 8). Participants reported that evidence was important, but they also considered patient expectations, colleagues' treatment choices, and business demands in clinical decision making. Physiotherapists reported they access evidence on average 30 minutes or less per week. Competing demands like business administration tasks are barriers to accessing evidence. Participants reported that patient expectations were a major barrier to applying evidence in practice. Environmental and systemic factors, like funding structures or incentives for evidence-based care, and social factors, like lacking or having a culture of accountability and mentorship, were reported as both barriers and enablers to evidence application. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides context to physiotherapists' opinion, access, and application of evidence in clinical practice. Physiotherapists' provision of evidence-based care may be improved by enhancing structural support from workplaces to access and apply evidence and exploring discrepancies between physiotherapists' perceptions of patient expectations and actual patient expectations.

Low back pain presentations to rural, regional, and metropolitan emergency departments.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the context of low back pain (LBP) presentations to emergency departments (EDs) by remoteness areas, hospital delineation level and staffing portfolios. DESIGN: A retrospective observational study using routinely captured ED and admission data over a 5-year period (July 2014-June 2019). SETTINGS: Thirty seven EDs across a large health district in NSW, Australia, covering major cities, inner regional areas and outer regional areas. PARTICIPANTS: Emergency department (ED) presentations with a principal or secondary diagnosis of LBP based on ICD-10 code (M54.5). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ED presentation and associated admission measures, including presentation rate, referral source, time in ED, re-presentation rate, admission details and cost to the health system. RESULTS: There were 26 509 ED presentations for LBP across the 5 years. Time spent in ED was 206 min for EDs in major cities, 146 min for inner regional EDs and 89 min for outer regional EDs. Re-presentation rates were 6% in major cities, 8.8% in inner regional EDs and 11.8% in outer regional EDs. Admission rates were 20.4%, 15.8% and 18.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study describes LBP presentations across 37 EDs, highlighting the potential burden these presentations place on hospitals. LBP presentations appear to follow different pathways depending on the ED remoteness area, delineation level and staff portfolio.

Patient-reported outcomes of a short hospital stay after total knee replacement in a regional public hospital: a prospective cohort treated 2018-2019.

BACKGROUND: Patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction following short length of stay (LoS) after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in the Australian regional context remain unexplored. This study reports complications, outcomes and satisfaction of patients discharged from an enhanced recovery protocol (ERP), 6 weeks after TKA in a regional hospital. METHODS: Prospective recruitment occurred between 2018 and 2019. Demographics, intraoperative data, complications and emergency department (ED) presentations were retrieved from hospital records. Complications were graded for severity using a published scale. Knee range of motion (ROM), timed up-and-go (TUG), 6-min walk test (6MWT) and Oxford Knee Scores (OKS) were assessed preoperatively and 6 weeks postoperatively. Patient satisfaction was assessed via questionnaire at the postoperative follow-up. RESULTS: One hundred patients/117 primary TKAs were prospectively included. Median LoS was 2 days (interquartile range 1-3 days) with 74.4% and 88.4% of patients satisfied with their knee and LoS, at 6 weeks respectively. Twenty-seven patients presented to the ED a total of 37 times with complication severity of Grade III or less, and 10 patients were readmitted. Significant improvements in objective and subjective outcomes were observed, however only change in median OKS exceeded the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) threshold. CONCLUSION: An enhanced recovery protocol after TKA in a regional hospital can achieve a median LoS of 2 days without compromising patient-reported outcomes and objective functional measures, whilst maintaining a high level of patient satisfaction with both the surgery and LoS. Further work is required to better optimize management of largely low-grade complications in this patient population.