Cor Spreeuwenberg

Nurse practitioners substituting for general practitioners: randomized controlled trial

AIM This paper is a report of a study conducted to evaluate process and outcomes of care provided to patients with common complaints by general practitioners or specially trained nurse practitioners as first point of contact. BACKGROUND Studies in the United States of America and Great Britain show that substituting nurse practitioners for general practitioners results in higher patient satisfaction and higher quality of care. As the American and British healthcare system and settings differ from that in The Netherlands, a Dutch trial was conducted. METHODS A total of 1501 patients in 15 general practices were randomized to consultation by a general practitioner or a nurse practitioner. Data were collected over a 6-month period in 2006 by means of questionnaires, extracting medical records from practice computer systems and recording the length of consultations. FINDINGS In both groups, the patients highly appreciated the quality of care. No statistically significant differences were found in health status, medical resource consumption and compliance of practical guidelines in primary care in The Netherlands. Patients in the NP intervention group were more often invited to re-attend, had more follow-up consultations and their consultations took statistically significantly longer. CONCLUSION Nurse practitioners and general practitioners provide comparable care. Our findings support an increased involvement of specially trained nurse practitioners in the Dutch primary care and contribute to knowledge of the effectiveness of care provision by nurse practitioners from a national and international perspective.

The nurse specialist as main care-provider for patients with type 2 diabetes in a primary care setting: effects on patient outcomes.

A solution to safeguard high quality diabetes care may be to allocate care to the nurse specialist. By using a one group pretest-posttest design with additional comparisons, this study evaluated effects on patient outcomes of a shared care model with the diabetes nurse as main care-provider for patients with type 2 diabetes in a primary care setting. The shared care model resulted in an improved glycaemic control, additional consultations and other outcomes being equivalent to diabetes care before introduction, with the general practitioner as main care-provider. Assignment of care for patients with type 2 diabetes to nurse specialists seems to be justified.

Adoption of disease management model for diabetes in region of Maastricht

Chronic diseases and associated conditions will always pose a challenge to healthcare systems. New healthcare models are being introduced in Western countries in response to a set of problems that are evident to some degree in all health services—for example, uncoordinated arrangements for delivering care, bias towards acute treatment, neglect of preventive care, and inappropriate treatment.1 These models take account of the pressure on quality and costs of chronic care and originate from the overlapping approaches of integrated care (United States) and shared care (western Europe). 2 3 In the Netherlands, shared care models have acted as a precursor of the recently introduced concept of disease management. Although several disease management initiatives are emerging, the model is not being adopted as fast as might be expected from the benefits that are claimed to result from it.4 In this article we describe the process of moving from a shared care model to a disease management model by considering recent developments in diabetes care in the region of Maastricht. We also describe the use of health technology assessment to evaluate the model. #### Summary points The concepts of integrated care and shared care can be regarded, in the Netherlands at least, as the precursor of disease management Implementation of a shared care model for diabetes in the region of Maastricht ensured that necessary conditions were met for a disease management model Widespread use of disease management models is hampered by lack of evidence Evidence from health technology assessment is necessary to justify large scale use of disease management models but will not be sufficient by itself Shared care for patients with stable diabetes mellitus type 2 who were receiving care from an endocrinologist in an outpatient clinic was implemented in the region of Maastricht in 1997. Two changes were made from usual care: …

How to manage the implementation of shared care ‐ A discussion of the role of power, culture and structure in the development of shared care arrangements

The Dutch health care sector has become familiar with innovation of care delivery in order to meet the changing demand of the steadily ageing population, in need of complex care. Innovations often concern the implementation of shared care models, implying collaboration and substitution of care. Whereas ageing is a European-wide phenomenon, the development of such new care arrangements can be observed not only in The Netherlands, but also in the UK, Scandinavia, Italy and other countries. In this article we discuss the implementation of shared care, with the help of three concepts: power, culture and structure. We discuss the role of these factors from the view that shared care can be considered as inter-professional working within a network context. The central question is how structure, culture and power can offer change managers a starting-point for improving their innovative capacity. To illuminate our discussion we make use of a number of event-descriptions from five Dutch shared care projects. Also, we give some practical recommendations for change managers.

Effects on quality of care for patients with NIDDM or COPD when the specialised nurse has a central role: a literature review

Chronic care has to be organised in a way that care from any one caregiver is linked up to that provided by others so that disturbing gaps, contradictions and overlaps are avoided. In the search for the most effective and efficient combination of health professionals to deliver care to chronic patients, the role of the specialised nurse has become important. This article reviews a Medline search for publications about the effects of models of care for patients with NIDDM or COPD in which the specialised nurse has a central role. Main features of the models are identified and related to expected and statistically significant effects. In this young domain of effect evaluation ten publications met our criteria. Depending on the division of tasks between care providers, improvements are seen in self-care, quality of life and patient satisfaction, as well as increased medical consumption. More methodologically suitable evaluations with the use of only valid measures are needed.

Cost-utility of a disease management program for patients with asthma

OBJECTIVES The long-term cost-utility of a disease management program (DMP) for adults with asthma was assessed compared to usual care. METHODS A DMP for patients with asthma has been developed and implemented in the region of Maastricht (The Netherlands). By integrating care, the program aims to continuously improve quality of care within existing budgets. A clinical trial was performed over a period of 15 months to collect data on costs and effects of the program and usual care. These data were used to inform a probabilistic decision-analytic model to estimate the 5-year impact of the program beyond follow-up. A societal perspective was adopted, with outcomes assessed in terms of costs per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). RESULTS The DMP is associated with a gain in QALYs compared to usual care (2.7+/-.2 versus 3.4+/-.8), at lower costs (3,302+/-314 euro versus 2,973+/-304 euro), thus leading to dominance. The probability that disease management is the more cost-effective strategy is 76 percent at a societal willingness to pay (WTP) for an additional QALY of 0 euro, reaching 95 percent probability at a WTP of 1,000 euro per additional QALY. CONCLUSIONS Organizing health care according to the principles of disease management for adults with asthma has a high probability of being cost-effective and is associated with a gain in QALYs at lower costs.

Applying low disease activity criteria using the DAS28 to assess stability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives: To examine whether low disease activity criteria using the disease activity score (DAS28) can be applied to identify a reasonably large number of patients with stable low disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) over a six month period, with the ultimate intention of including these patients in a substitution based, shared care model. Additionally, to assess the reliability of the DAS28 for selecting patients with stable disease from an outpatient population. Methods: Patients regularly seen at the rheumatology outpatient department of the university hospital Maastricht, were invited for assessment of the stability of their RA. The shared care model was intended to provide care to patients with stable, low disease activity of RA by nurse specialists. For this, patients underwent assessments using the DAS28 criteria at entry and three and six months later. Test-retest reliability was assessed for composing measures as well as for the DAS28. Results: Of the 97 outpatients included, one third (31 patients) did not complete the study. Patients with missing data were older and assessed their disease activity as greater than patients with complete data. Applying the low disease activity criteria to assess stability over a period of six months (DAS28(T0)⩽3.2 and DAS28(T6)−DAS28(T0)⩽1.2) resulted in identification of 22/56 (39%) patients with stable, low disease activity of RA. A good similarity score (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.82) for the DAS28 was found. Conclusions: The low disease activity criteria using the DAS28 can be used to select patients with stable, low disease activity of RA from a rheumatic outpatient population.

A disease management programme for patients with diabetes mellitus is associated with improved quality of care within existing budgets

Aim  To assess the impact of a disease management programme for patients with diabetes mellitus (Type 1 and Type 2) on cost‐effectiveness, quality of life and patient self‐management. By organizing care in accordance with the principles of disease management, it is aimed to increase quality of care within existing budgets.

The role of nurses in euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in The Netherlands

Background: Issues concerning legislation and regulation with respect to the role of nurses in euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide gave the Minister for Health reason to commission a study of the role of nurses in medical end-of-life decisions in hospitals, home care and nursing homes. Aim: This paper reports the findings of a study of the role of nurses in euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, conducted as part of a study of the role of nurses in medical end-of-life decisions. The findings for hospitals, home care and nursing homes are described and compared. Method: A questionnaire was sent to 1509 nurses, employed in 73 hospitals, 55 home care organisations and 63 nursing homes. 1179 responses (78.1%) were suitable for analysis. The questionnaire was pilot-tested among 106 nurses, with a response rate of 85%. Results: In 37.0% of cases, the nurse was the first person with whom patients discussed their request for euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. Consultation between physicians and nurses during the decision-making process took place quite often in hospitals (78.8%) and nursing homes (81.3%) and less frequently in home care situations (41.2%). In some cases (12.2%), nurses administered the euthanatics. Conclusions: The results show substantial differences between the intramural sector (hospitals and nursing homes) and the extramural sector (home care), which are probably linked to the organisational structure of the institutions. Consultation between physicians and nurses during the decision-making process needs improvement, particularly in home care. Some nurses had administered euthanatics, although this task is by law exclusively reserved to physicians.

Are we measuring what matters in health technology assessment of disease management? Systematic literature review

OBJECTIVES An overview was produced of indicators currently used to assess disease management programs and, based on these findings, provide a framework regarding sets of indicators that should be used when taking the aims and types of disease management programs into account. METHODS A systematic literature review was performed. RESULTS Thirty-six studies met the inclusion criteria. It appeared that a link between aims of disease management and evaluated structure, process, as well as outcome indicators does not exist in a substantial part of published studies on disease management of diabetes and asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, especially when efficiency of care is concerned. Furthermore, structure indicators are largely missing from the evaluations, although these are of major importance for the interpretation of outcomes for purposes of decision-making. Efficiency of disease management is mainly evaluated by means of process indicators; the use of outcome indicators is less common. Within a framework, structure, process, and outcome indicators for effectiveness and efficiency are recommended for each type of disease management program. CONCLUSIONS The link between aims of disease management and evaluated structure, process, and outcome indicators does not exist in a substantial part of published studies on disease management. The added value of this study mainly lies in the development of a framework to guide the choice of indicators for health technology assessment of disease management.