07 Oct Team Management of Stroke Improved Patient Satisfaction, Decreased Hospital Days

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
John Falconer MD FRCPC
Neurologist, Kelowna General Hospital;
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology,
University of British Columbia

Medical Research: What are the main findings of this study?

Dr. Falconer: This study set out to investigate the possible benefits of having a
physician with a proprietorial interest (Pro-MD) in a stroke unit, tightly
combined with a multidisciplinary inter-professional team, and including
the family and the patient in as essential members for the management of a
stroke patient. This also involved the introduction of a geographic
located Acute Stroke Unit. We compared Acute Bed Days used by patients
from the five months before to five months after this system was put in
place. Our main end point was number of days in acute hospital care before
and after, but we also informally tracked patient and caregiver
satisfaction and staff morale.

The Proprietary Physician, or Pro-M Drefers to a physician who has a “proprietorial” interest in a hospital unit or ward. In other words, I was working at this unit in a
wholistic sense, trying not only to manage patients as best they can, but
also interested in the patient flow and family-patient communications.

We found that patient bed days were reduced by approximately 25% overall,
while at the same time, patient and family satisfaction was improved, and
staff morale increased.

Initially, we had supposed that patients and their family would be more
satisfied, but we were surprised at the reduction in Acute Bed Days that
resulted.

Medical Research: What should patients and clinicians take away from this study?

Dr. Falconer:  Clinicians should take away from this the multiple areas of benefit from
using this approach, which could be useful in many other areas of an acute
care hospital. Expanding research of this Proprietary Physician, or Pro-MD system is encouraged, to see if this can be replicated in other hospitals and other specialties.

Citation:

Canadian Stroke Congress abstract:
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. “Innovative stroke patient management system cuts hospital bed usage by more than 25 percent.”

Last Updated on October 7, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD