Arthritis waiting times slashed
North Melbourne resident, June Peters, is one of many arthritis patients who no longer need to wait as long for their initial outpatient appointments or surgery after the introduction of a new patient management system.
North Melbourne resident, June Peters, is one of many arthritis patients who no longer need to wait as long for their initial outpatient appointments or surgery after the introduction of a new patient management system.
Developed at the Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, Royal Melbourne Hospital and The University of Melbourne, the tool is an objective way of “spotting deterioration”.
Targeting patients with arthritis of the hip or knee, the new system has reduced the time patients wait for their first outpatient appointment from 10 months to just three.
And surgical throughput has increased by nearly 40%, from 396 procedures to 548, study authors wrote in the Australian Health Review.
“It ensures timely access and supports patients at every stage in the management of their arthritis, from initial referral to review and subsequent development and implementation of a management plan,” they wrote.
Waiting times for surgery have also reduced dramatically, from 18 months before the new system was implemented to eight months.
Integral to the new model was a triage and patient referral system called MAPT (Multi-Attribute Prioritisation Tool), which assessed and prioritised patients according to their disease severity.
Seventy five year old Ms Peters has suffered with pain for more than five years and had two hip replacements in a year.
She now sees a specialist every three to four months, who checks her blood and determines how high the inflammation is. “Before I had my hips done I barely got around; I was in bed most of the time. It’s like a miracle and now I’m perfect,” she says.
Ms Peters, who had her last hip replacement about seven months ago, has not experienced any pain since. “I can’t fault the system. They help me to manage my pain and condition well. I have nothing to complain about,” she says.
