Assignment Task:
Task:
Case Study – Healthcare Management, York St John University
By Prof. Sonia Cottom
Chronic pain management is a major personal, societal and economic burden. For the majority of those suffering from chronic pain, it is not about the length of time they have had the pain, but rather the loss of function, loss of identity, loss of mental health and, for many, loss of hope (Eccleston, 2011, 2016).
The bigger picture of chronic pain, including the direct financial costs, is often forgotten. Such costs mostly stem from hospitalisation and outpatient care, medication and equipment to improve the patient’s ability to perform the activities of daily living. Meanwhile, indirect societal costs include social benefits, unemployment benefits, sick leave, productivity losses, absenteeism and early disability retirement. Several of these costs also often apply to carers (Nielsen, 2013; Valentin et al, 2016).
There have been many studies regarding chronic pain treatments and interventions. However, the importance of equipping patients with self-management skills and strategies to treat chronic pain in a community setting deserves greater attention. This is particularly so since the outbreak of COVID-19, which has proven to be a great teacher in demonstrating the need for self-management skills among patients with chronic pain. It has also highlighted the importance of third sector organisations, many of which have stepped up and provided services to help those experiencing chronic pain while access to statutory services was suspended. Around 150 000 people in the UK had their pain management programmes stopped because of COVID-19 (International Pain Summit,
2020).
Looking towards the post-pandemic future, it is clear that chronic disability could be an outcome for those who have survived COVID-19 infection. Ultimately, this will create additional pressure on pain management clinics, many of which are already months (and sometimes years) behind, as they begin to look at the resources needed to address such waiting lists. Following on from this, there is certainly a growing need to provide a more diverse service for chronic pain patients. Even before the pandemic, many patients were unable to travel as a result of the severity of their condition, limited mobility or the geography of where they live. It is therefore imperative to ensure that future service delivery includes a continuation of monthly supported self-management sessions, containing elements of both face-to-face and online service provision. It must also be highlighted that not everyone experiencing chronic pain needs a referral to a secondary care chronic pain clinic. Healthcare professionals have a duty to ensure that patients are offered self-management at the beginning of their journey, rather than waiting until clinical treatment options have been tried and, often, patients are told that ‘there is nothing more that we can do for you’. These last few months have enabled us to highlight more intensely the importance and value of self-management and the difference that this can make to a person’s life.
Situation: Post COVID chronic pain service – high wait times to see secondary care specialists. Lower than usual staffing levels due to COVID re-deployment with some staff not returning to the pain service. Whilst the number of patients waiting has reduced from 4330 to 2340, the number of patients waiting longer than 52 weeks has risen from 165 to 233.
Questions:
1. How are you going to address this?
2. What information/data do you need to analyse?
3. Who do you need to get together?
4. What pathways do you need to adopt/look at?
5. How is the service delivered? What needs to change?
6. How many staff?
Factors which we would expect to see incorporated into the plan: –
· Process mapping
· Pathway change
· Utilisation of third sector
· Engaging Healthcare Professionals in the process/journey
Ideally, we would be looking for the above process to be mapped out detailing the journey, the data needed etc, and how they would access the overall effectiveness.
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