System plasticity and integrated care: informed consumers guide clinical reorientation and system reorganization.

Abstract

SETTING: Two Australian public hospital multidisciplinary pain centers (MPCs) situated on opposite sides of the country.

OBJECTIVE: Restructuring our services to become patient-centred and patient-driven by enabling entry to our MPCs through an education portal, inclusive of both knowledge and self-management skills, and to then be free to select particular treatment options on the basis of evidence of known efficacy (risk/benefit).

DESIGN: Group-based education to inform our patients of the current state of uncertainty that exists in Pain Medicine, both in regard to diagnostic and therapeutic practices. Using an interprofessional team approach, we aimed to present practical and evidence-based advice on techniques of pain self-management and existing traditional medical options.

RESULTS: Early, resource efficient, group intervention provides many patients with sufficient information to make informed decisions and enables them to partner us in engaging a whole person approach to their care. We have implemented routine comprehensive audits of clinical services to better inform the planning and provision of health care across health services.

CONCLUSIONS: System plasticity is as important to the process of integrated health care as it is to our understanding of the complexity of the lived experience of pain. Better-informed consumers partnered with responsive health professionals drive the proposed paradigm shift in service delivery. The changes better align the needs of consumers with the ability of health care providers to meet them, thus achieving the twin goals of patient empowerment and system efficiency.