Quality of care in inflammatory bowel diseases: What is the best way to better outcomes?

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a lifelong, progressive disease that has disabling impacts on patient’s lives. Given the complex nature of the diagnosis of IBD and its management there is consequently a large economic burden seen across all health care systems. Quality indicators (QI) have been created to assess the different façades of disease management including structure, process and outcome components. Their development serves to provide a means to target and measure quality of care (QoC). Multiple different QI sets have been published in IBD, but all serve the same purpose of trying to achieve a standard of care that can be attained on a national and international level, since there is still a major variation in clinical practice. There have been many recent innovative developments that aim to improve QoC in IBD including telemedicine, home biomarker assessment and rapid access clinics. These are some of the novel advancements that have been shown to have great potential at improving QoC, while offloading some of the burden that IBD can have vis-a-vis emergency room visits and hospital admissions. The aim of the current review is to summarize and discuss available QI sets and recent developments in IBD care including telemedicine, and to give insight into how the utilization of these tools could benefit the QoC of IBD patients. Additionally, a treating-to-target structure as well as evidence surrounding aggressive management directed at tighter disease control will be presented.

Surgical Resection for Crohn’s and Cancer: A Comparison of Disease-Specific Risk Factors and Outcomes

“…Because of the preponderance of terminal ileal disease and a 10-year risk of surgical resection of almost 50%, many patients with CD eventually require ileocolonic resections [11, 12]. Because of the complexity of medical management requiring thorough surveillance and follow-up, patients with CD are treated in dedicated inflammatory bowel disease units [13]. ACS-NSQIP does not discriminate between specific settings or case volume of contributing centers and disposes of a limited amount of disease-specific variables.…”

COVID‐19—A Guide to Rapid Implementation of Telehealth Services

“…IBD symptoms are debilitating (18) and increase healthcare utilization (19). Increased monitoring and access to care can positively influence IBD outcomes (20). Given that many children with subspecialty needs have limited access to appropriate care (21), telemedicine has the potential to revolutionize pediatric IBD management (22).…”

Addendum to S3-Guidelines Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis: Management of Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the COVID-19 Pandemic – open questions and answers

“…Patients with acute symptoms must continue to have unrestricted access to adequate medical care. Moreover, under certain circumstances, patients with IBD require urgent diagnostic and therapeutic measures, e. g., in the case of perianal abscess, ileus or signs of fulminant disease [65]. Therefore, the continued availability of specialist care in IBD treatment centres and clinics is indispensable.…”