Strohl M, Zhang X, Lévesque D, Bessissow T. Transition care in inflammatory bowel disease: A needs assessment survey of Quebec gastroenterologists and allied nurses. World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther 2017; 8(3): 186-192 [PMID: 28828197 DOI: 10.4292/wjgpt.v8.i3.186]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dr. Talat Bessissow, Division of Gastroenterology, Montreal General Hospital C7-200, McGill University Health Center, 1650 Avenue Cedar, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada. talat.bessissow@mcgill.ca
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. Aug 6, 2017; 8(3): 186-192 Published online Aug 6, 2017. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v8.i3.186
Transition care in inflammatory bowel disease: A needs assessment survey of Quebec gastroenterologists and allied nurses
Matthew Strohl, Xun Zhang, Dominique Lévesque, Talat Bessissow
Matthew Strohl, Department of Internal Medicine, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
Xun Zhang, Research Institute, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
Dominique Lévesque, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
Talat Bessissow, Department of Gastroenterology, Montreal General Hospital C7-200, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
Author contributions: Strohl M initially compiled all the data from completed surveys, partook in statistical analysis and interpretation of data; additionally, wrote draft and was the first author of manuscript; Zhang X was responsible for statistical analysis of the manuscript and deriving summary descriptive data; Lévesque D conceived the idea of the survey, took part in designing the survey and assisted in draft revision and editing; Bessissow T was a major contributor to multiple revisions and edits and assisted significantly with fine-tuning the final draft.
Institutional review board statement: The McGill University Health Center research ethics board approved this study.
Informed consent statement: There was implicit consent upon filling out the questionnaire by the health care professionals that participated in our survey.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report from any of the study’s authors.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Talat Bessissow, Division of Gastroenterology, Montreal General Hospital C7-200, McGill University Health Center, 1650 Avenue Cedar, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada. talat.bessissow@mcgill.ca
Telephone: +1-514-9348531 Fax: +1-514-9348531
Received: February 17, 2017 Peer-review started: February 18, 2017 First decision: March 3, 2017 Revised: March 28, 2017 Accepted: May 9, 2017 Article in press: May 10, 2017 Published online: August 6, 2017 Processing time: 164 Days and 16 Hours
Abstract
AIM
To determine the tools needed and problems encountered during the transition of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients from pediatric to adult gastroenterologists (GIs) in Québec, Canada.
METHODS
We conducted a needs assessment survey of Quebec health care professionals (HCPs). The survey was handed out to 136 Québec HCPs at a local conference in 2013. Additionally, it was emailed to any other HCPs in Quebec involved in caring for IBD patients. The completed surveys were compiled to derive descriptive data. Further specific subgroup analysis was then conducted.
RESULTS
Among the conference attendees and individuals emailed 77 (28.2%) completed the questionnaire. Respondents included adult GIs (61.3%), pediatric GIs (20.8%) and IBD nurses (18.3%). The majority of respondents believed that a standardized structure is important for a successful transition. Adult and pediatric GIs equally felt that patients were inadequately prepared for the transition (P = 0.6). There were significant differences between adult and pediatric GIs when it came to resource availability (55.6% vs 90.9%, P = 0.002) and perceived need of a formal transition clinic (21.7% vs 68.8%, P = 0.0006). Both transition program and medical summaries were identified as the most valuable tools to improve transition.
CONCLUSION
As described in previous studies, our survey reinforces the importance of a transition program, education for young adult IBD patients and the need to improve communication between adult and pediatric GIs.
Core tip: Transition care and transfer of care from pediatric to adult realms is a major challenge with a paucity of published work in the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) domain. Transition care varies across different health care systems but from other pediatric entities improved objective outcomes have been demonstrated with more effective transfer of care. This is the first published survey on health care professionals (HCPs) opinion on transition care in IBD in Canada. Barriers related to the patients from the HCPs were identified as were tools that if implemented have potential to improve the effectiveness of transition care. Differences between pediatric and adult gastroenterologists were also identified.
