1293 A MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM DERIVED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR HYBRID MEETING

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Working in a small district general hospital in Llanelli, West Wales, a weekly hybrid multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting is held on the stroke and care of the elderly unit. There are 3 separate geriatric teams covering the ward. Typically, these meetings are attended by physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, discharge nurses, social workers, nurses and a doctor. The main agenda is to discuss the patients’ current medical issues, rehabilitation needs and likely discharge destination/complexities. Medically, these meetings were attended by a single doctor who often found it difficult to concisely summarise the patient’s medical problems from the notes of patients not under their care. Our aim was to streamline the MDT meeting with regards to quality of content, understanding of patient issues and general efficiency. Intervention An initial questionnaire was used to gather prospective data. 90% of MDT members suggested that a doctor from each team should attend to present patients under their care and engage in onward discussions. This was implemented over the period of a month. A follow-up questionnaire collected quantitative data by asking MDT members to retrospectively rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, the efficiency of the meeting and the understanding of patient’s medical conditions before and after implementing the change. Results The average efficiency was rated at 4.8/10 before the change was implemented and 8.8/10 afterwards, a 40% improvement. Understanding of patient medical issues had a 28% improvement, from an average rating of 6 to 8.8. Qualitative and free text data was also collected highlighting a secondary benefit of reciprocal communication between the therapy MDT and the appropriate medical doctors hopefully improving the timeliness of any required action. Conclusions Suggestions of further changes include making the meeting fully face-to-face, providing a “proforma” to document what was discussed and introducing other members of community teams.