Patients Know Best (PKB) has been used by different Orthopaedic teams, from post-operative care, physio, pain and rheumatology teams for many years to better manage their cohort of patients.

With over 200 different musculoskeletal conditions and the current NHS waiting lists, orthopaedic patients are experiencing longer than usual waiting times for appointments, procedures and operations.

This deploy page will show you how different orthopaedic services can use PKB and features teams are already using with their patients.

Workflow for Orthopaedic Patients

The workflow below shows how PKB can be used in preoperative and postoperative assessments by giving patients access to their PKB records using the care plan and questionnaires functionality.

Open

Workflow for orthopaedic consent

Teams can use the care plan feature to gather informed consent before operations and procedures. The workflow diagram below shows how teams can send the consent care plan to their patients to review and sign before they enter the clinic/hospital. For more information on how PKB manages consent, please click here.

Open

Use Cases of PKB

The below examples show how PKB is being used in orthopaedic services, if you would like to know more about these teams and want to start using PKB in your service please speak to your Success PM or look at our case studies here for more examples of how PKB is being used in other specialty areas.

Rheumatology

• PKB making a big difference to rheumatology patients in Swansea Bay services by giving patients access to their blood results and clinical documents

• Giving different Allied Health Professionals the ability to access patients' records to provide a holistic care approach to patients within the Rheumatology Department. By educating patients, the team want to reduce the number of unnecessary contacts via the Advice Line and to allow virtual clinics to avoid the need for a patient to attend the clinic or even require a telephone call.

Virtual Orthopaedic Rehabilitation at Hywel Dda

• Hywel Dda University Health Board developed and implemented a virtual, tiered, multi-disciplinary orthopaedic prehabilitation service with partners in the industry. Patients are assessed and stratified onto one of three different virtual patient-centred tiers of prehabilitation based on their clinical, physical and psychological needs utilising digital platforms.

Read the full Case Study here.

The Persistent Pain team at Hywel Dda

• The team is working with patients with Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia as part of a study to see how using a PHR helps improve patient outcomes. The team uses questionnaires and library resources to support patients with long-term pain. This includes access to resources about their condition, exercises, sleep hygiene, goal setting, and the ability for patients to upload their health data such as measurements and respond to questionnaires.

Physio team

• Using PKB to provide resources via the library for patients discharged without follow-up and for patients on a 6-month PIFU 'discharge' with a shared care plan, library resources, questionnaires and team messaging.

Key Features

Key PKB features all orthopaedic services can use with their patients to support them while they wait, both preop and post-operatively. A list of them is below.

Messaging

• Patients have access to message their healthcare team(saving time on the phone)

• The Admin team can triage messages. Either resolving or passing onto another speciality team

• Universal Messaging is the ability for patients to message clinical and non-clinical teams

• Team-based messaging allows teams to automatically receive secure messages and questionnaires as a group rather than as individuals

Open

Library

• Central trust library for advice, services and information

• Disease and condition information with advice and resources

• Treatment plans, for example, a rehab program with videos and advice a patient needs to watch and read each week

• Rehabilitation information

• Advice on living well, including exercise, healthy eating, and quitting smoking and alcohol

• Details and links to National and local support groups and websites

• Professional alliance information

• Treatment options for orthopaedic conditions and pain management

Open

Care Plans

PKB care plans can be used at every stage in a patient's healthcare journey. Below are some of the care plan templates being used and templates that can be created.

• Condition information and resource care plans

• Orthopaedic monitoring condition plan (an example of a cardiology monitoring care plan)

• Rehab, physical activity and musculoskeletal health

• Goals setting care plan

• 8 Week Orthopaedic Prehabilitation plan

• ACL Reconstruction Proforma care plan

• Enhanced recovery care plan

• Peri-operative care plans

Osteoarthritis Care Plan Template

Open

There are a number of other orthopaedic care plan templates that have been created for teams, a list of them are below. If you would like to see them in full please ask your Success PM.

Open

Questionnaires

PKB allows patients to complete any questionnaires. These can be sent on an individual basis or to a whole cohort of patients. The output of the questionnaires can be aggregated and anonymised and is available via the API or as a CSV download.

Teams can get patients to fill in questionnaires periodically, in some cases these are pre-appointment or post-operative assessments. Below are some of the questionnaire templates being used by teams.

• Annual Review and Flare-Up Questionnaires

• MSK-HQ short questionnaire

• Symptoms and Quality of life questionnaire

• PREOM

• Pain questionnaire

• Enhance recovery after surgery questionnaire

Add and View Data

• Patients can view hospitals and GP data where integration with PKB has been set up.

• Data can include blood tests, x-ray reports, clinic and appointment letters, appointments and discharge summaries.

• Patients can add information themselves, including operations and conditions.

• Patients can track key measurements and add any symptoms related to their orthopaedic condition.

Open

Further Information

• Rheumatology Team seeing cost benefits: using PKB to streamline processes

• 8 Week Orthopaedic Prehabilitation Plan preoperative care plan

• Consent care plan templates: how to do informed consent through a PKB care plan before surgery

• ACL Reconstruction Proforma care plan template: enhance recovery care plan for orthopaedic patients in hospital and post-discharge

• PKB making a big difference to rheumatology patients: giving patients access to their blood results and clinical documents

• Peri-operative specialty team: how PKB can be used pre and post-operatively

• University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust Dermatology: Using messaging and pre-appointment questionnaires to decrease the number of phone calls, saving both patient and clinician time.