Getting the right balance of surgeon and physiotherapist-led outpatient care
The Neurosurgery and Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Screening Clinics team presented their work at the System Performance Reporting (SPR) Conference held on 8–10 August 2018 in Brisbane, Australia. Researchers from UQ’s Health Economics Research & Modelling Unit were part of the research team. A/Prof Tracy Comans led the simulation modelling and Nicole Moretto was the principal project officer for the study.
This research project used discrete event simulation to identify the scale and most efficient combination of traditional surgeon and advanced physiotherapist-led specialist outpatient services to meet current and projected future growth in orthopaedic and neurosurgical outpatient demand. Simulation modelling transformed the wealth of existing hospital data into evidence to plan for a more efficient way to use health professional resources in three hospital and health services in Queensland. It provided hospital decision makers with greater confidence in allocating funding for business cases and in adopting a longer-term focus for service planning.
This study was funded by the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation (AusHSI) Implementation Grant IG000-728.