New modern outpatient care guide
The RCP has undertaken a significant piece of work over the past 18 months, engaging with a large number of stakeholders around the future of outpatients.
The demand on outpatients has significantly increased over time – this is due to an increase in patients with complex disease and multiple co-morbidities, and a change in demographics with a greater aging population.
Another significant contributing factor is the drive to increase flow through our inpatient facilities and to manage ever more complex patients in an out of hospital settings.
At the same time, we know there are financial and workforce constraints within the health system. It follows therefore that there is a need to add greater value to patient outcomes within our restricted resources.
As part of our consultation process to produce this guide, we heard from stakeholders that one of the main ways in which we could achieve this was to shift from appointment-based care to a wide range of options for holistic care, and that we should consider outpatient care as more than appointments.
This guide is the latest in a series of RCP publications supporting outpatient transformation. It outlines some of the novel models of care that should be considered to achieve this shift, including information that will support systems and organisations in redesigning services.
Previously, the RCP has issued quite specific guidance around clinic templates and some clinicians have expressed a desire for a similar document to be published again. We feel strongly, however, that such guidance can be too restrictive and can disincentivise innovation. We have instead, within this guide, outlined broader principles that would support systems and organisations to embrace the changes required to deliver modern outpatient care.
It also recognises that delivering efficient outpatient care in a way that requires a shift towards integrated pathways, prereferral advice and guidance, remote monitoring, and asynchronous interactions with patients, will require a diversion of clinical resource away from traditional clinics to perform these functions in a meaningful and productive way.
Key issues addressed include:
- Avoiding unnecessary appointments
- The importance of considering patient complexity
- The value of administrative support
- The impact of education and supervision within an outpatient setting
- The benefits of multidisciplinary working.
We hope that you find this guide informative, and it supports you to implement change and improvements in your outpatient setting.
Read Using resources to add value, an implementation guide for local and regional teams