A pro-active prevention programme wished to understand the health needs of patients who attended the hospitals pre-assessment clinic. As they wanted to understand how they could adopt the Making Every Contact Count’ (MECC) approach and deliver data-led interventions that would aim to reduce A&E attendance, planned and unplanned admissions, and outpatient admissions.
Research
At West Middlesex University Hospital (WMUH) approximately 6000 patients attend the pre-assessment clinic every year for elective surgery. The clinic surveyed patients who attended the pre-assessment unit during 2022 and the results indicated:
- 31% were hypertensive
- 13% diabetic
- 12% smoker
- 29% have anxiety/ depression
- 51% drink alcohol more than recommended limit
- 50% have BMI>29,
- 41% were not adherent in taking their regular medicines
- 41% do not practice any physical exercise
- 50% said they do not follow healthy eating
New Intervention
The audit data was presented to the hospital executive management board, with the proposal to develop and test a new clinical nurse and pharmacist led ‘Population Health Management clinic’ that is grounded in connections to key stakeholders in the community, so that patients receive follow-up lifestyle interventions to improve their illnesses and medication adherence.
The board approved the proposal, and the first in its kind Population health management clinic was launched in the hospital in November 2023.
The aim of the clinic is to Introduce a ‘Making Every Contact Count’ approach in the pre-assessment unit by engaging in conversations with patients about their lifestyle. The project uses the population health management approach to gather data, segment and proactively support patients to improve health outcomes. Patients will then be provided with the tools and information they need to make meaningful changes to managing their illness and adopting healthy lifestyle choices.
In addition, the clinic has established links with the council Public Health team and services including referrals to Healthy Hounslow to help deliver continuous intervention and support for patients.
This is a one year pilot programme and the impact of the pro-active health intervention will be evaluated during the year. Dependent on the results, the team are planning to expand the project to other areas of the hospital clinics to make MECC daily practice of the health team of the hospital.