Innovations

The aim of this project is to capture the experiences of staff using a new documentation audit tool and to explore if embedding the audit process in to quarterly, one-to-one reviews improves quality and leads to further discussion related to professional matters and staff wellbeing.

Despite recommendations by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the management of Axial Spondyloarthritis (AS), adherence to exercise and self-management education is reported to be variable. The Axial Spondyloarthritis Know-How (ASK) self-management programme offers service-users a single attendance exercise and education workshop supported by a self-management digital toolkit. The digital toolkit consists of a short educational film and self-assessment tool prior to attendance and an interactive self-management handbook to support health behaviour change following attendance. The feasibility of delivering a digital self-management programme for adults with AS was explored prior to implementation.

Lung ultrasound (LUS) has been shown to have higher diagnostic accuracy (95% sensitivity and 95% specificity) in the detection of pneumonia in patients with respiratory symptoms when compared to chest radiograph (CXR) (49% sensitivity and 92% specificity). Physiotherapists trained in LUS could use this diagnostic technique to monitor patients for pneumonia especially when they begin to show signs of post-operative pulmonary complications (PPC).

To identify ways to improve the performance, and the health and well-being, of speedway riders.

Due to a lack of quality evidence-base to underpin professional practice in this field, to establish the incidence, nature and severity of injuries affecting speedway riders.

To highlight implications for practice and/or recommendations that can be used to drive improvements in practice.

To identify further areas for future investigation.

The requirement for a balance exercise class was identified whilst working in a musculoskeletal clinic that receives many referrals for patients who attend with balance deficit. We needed a class that would allow patients to improve upon confidence, mobility, functional balance and lower limb strength whilst being fun and augmenting individual Physiotherapy care. This class would also free up the popular assistant rehabilitation clinics.

Clinical outcomes for patients attending a pain management programme were evaluated to determine whether patients who rated an improvement on a Global Impression of Change Score, achieved mean changes in BPI that were consistent with 'acceptable' change, and to determine mean changes on other outcomes in this population. It is suggested that a mean change of 2.09 in pain interference, as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), could be considered acceptable to patients. Currently data is unavailable for changes in pain acceptance.

The foot surgery service was expanded in order to undertake more complex foot surgeries, this required an increase in physiotherapy input. Adaptations were made to our provision of physiotherapy to accommodate patients undergoing complex foot surgeries, patients with multiple co-morbidities and patients with complex social needs. This incorporated developing a robust protocol-led pathway including pre-op education and assessment with the aims of increasing attendance of our pre-op assessments “Foot School” and reducing length of stay (LOS).

General Practice is currently experiencing considerable capacity and sustainability challenges. With General Practice carrying out 90% of patient contacts in the NHS and musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions accounting for 10 - 30% of GP appointments it is essential to explore new ways of coping with this demand.

In Midlothian, half the practices were operating with restricted lists as a result of increasing demand: a demand which is predicted to quickly rise as the influx of new housing has resulted in Midlothian being the fastest growing local authority area in Scotland.

The strategic principle of this work is therefore to redirect appropriate patients from General Practice to MSK APP services with the aim of:

•           improving GP capacity.

•           improving patient outcomes.

•           improving the patient experience.

•           being cost effective and efficient.

•           enabling quick and easy access to highly specialised musculoskeletal input.

•           reducing referrals to secondary care, helping throughput and improving the conversion rate to surgery.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the role of the nursing HCA as part of the critical care multi professional rehabilitation team, with the express purpose of boosting rehabilitation during periods when there was no therapies services, and to fully embed the ethos of 24/7 hour rehabilitation into the critical care culture.  

The role of the Advanced Practice Physiotherapist (APP) has been well established in our Rheumatology team for more than 10 years. However, following the semi-retirement of one of the medical consultants there has been an option to pilot Consultant-level Physiotherapy input to the Rheumatology team. This process of using allied health professionals to replace medics has been called “Practitioner Substitution” and is seen as an important part of improving care and patient outcomes whilst delivering the efficiencies the NHS needs. The aims of the pilot Consultant post were: to independently manage and streamline the pathway for the non-inflammatory / pain service in Rheumatology, to reduce wait times and to ensure a more inflammatory-heavy caseload for the remaining Rheumatology medical team.