Our findings indicate that the use of a simple, low-cost communication strategy for patient care is associated with improvements in clinician and carer experience with potential implications for patient safety. Minimally, TOP 5 represents 'good practice' with a low risk of harm for patients.
Introduction (comprising background and problem statement):Carers have valuable information that can help the delivery of health care, however, it is often underutilised. There is limited published evidence concerning the effectiveness of carer engagement on patient outcomes. The Clinical Excellence Commission Top 5 Program (the program) is addressing this gap.Short description of practice and context: Patient Based Care (PBC) refers to a model of care focussed on the patients, built on genuine partnerships between Health Care Workers (HCWs) and patients. The program uses up to five personal tips from carers to promote coordination and continuity of care that meets mental and physical health needs for the care recipient, between primary, community and hospital based care.
Description of change implemented:The program enables genuine partnerships between HCWs, carers and care recipients to formally record and share the tips and management strategies. A standardised form enables continuity by staying with the care recipient through all care transition.The program aims to integrate health and social care services by creating awareness of dementia and promoting PBC across all health settings. Following success in the hospital setting, the program is now being integrated into Ambulance, primary, community and homecare settings to ensure care continuity and collaboration.Objective of the change/improvement realised: The program has met its objectives by demonstrating patient and staff experience, clinical outcome and operational benefits. The program has successfully demonstrated an increase in carer satisfaction, enablement of the care recipient to receive personalised care and support as well as HCWs feeling better equipped to meet the unique needs of the person with dementia.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.