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Map of Medicine 'Share your experience' survey
Thank you to all those who took part in our survey to find out what benefits the Map of Medicine has helped your local health community realise. We are happy to announce that Darren Munn from Lewes (East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust) has won an iPad 2 in our prize draw.
Aiming to reduce referral rates to orthopaedic outpatient clinics, Darren’s local health community used the Map of Medicine to develop a low back pain pathway. A central feature is the trialling of conservative therapy for appropriate patients before initiating referral to secondary care. As Musculoskeletal and Physiotherapy Team Leader in Lewes, Darren has seen first-hand how implementing the pathway has facilitated better communication between care settings and improved the quality of referrals.
An integrated physiotherapy service, providing consistent management across different sites with distinct patient populations, is essential in allocating resources effectively and achieving adherence to clinical guidelines. Using the Map of Medicine formalised the structure of a broad pathway to meet all population needs. It also allowed national guidance to be embedded within the service, helping to achieve best practice for orthopaedic screening and triage services.
We would like to thank everyone who responded; we received a fascinating range of stories about how the Map has been used to improve clinical and financial outcomes, from reducing variation in referral patterns to agreeing care between health and social care teams, to agreeing a pathway of care across a PCT.