Issue

Burn Care Netherlands and Lighthouse Software are working together to raise the quality of patient-centered care in burn centers to an even higher level. To achieve this, all burn centers in the Netherlands use Lighthouse Software's QuestManager to measure patient-reported outcomes.

Dutch burn care is doing well. Very well. However, there is still much to gain when it comes to patient-centered care and shared decision-making, according to Lotte van Dammen, project coordinator of the outcomes registry Burn Centers Outcome Registry the Netherlands (BORN): "New digital innovations offer more and more opportunities to make patient care even better in terms of quality and especially more personalized. BORN was set up to further improve the quality of care and life of patients. We do this by systematically measuring and registering outcomes of care that are important to the patient. This makes it possible to tailor treatment plans even more precisely to the patient's needs and wishes."

Measuring outcomes

"All adult patients under treatment at one of our burn centers are asked to participate in the program. Patients then receive questionnaires at set intervals about quality of life, psychological and physical functioning, participation, work, pain and scarring. The outcomes are immediately available to the doctors and nurses involved, so that they know where the patient is or is not yet doing well, and how this changes during treatment. Based on this, the treatment plan can be adjusted if necessary."

To collect this data, BORN uses QuestManager, a software solution from Lighthouse Software developed for digital processing and automatic analysis of outcome measures, such as PROMs.

Children also think about their recovery

In addition to the outcome measurements for adults, Burn Care Netherlands has also started a specific measurement program for children. "The outcomes registration for children has been running for several years, but is now better tailored to what is really important for children with burns," says Lotte van Dammen. "We took a critical look at the content and length of the questionnaires, so that children and their parents are burdened as little as possible. The lists now contain only 12 to 14 questions and make use of smileys 😃 🙂 😐 🙁 😭 to make filling it out accessible and child-friendly." This way, even young patients can participate in an understandable way about their recovery and treatment.

Highest quality of life

With the use of the data generated by QuestManager, Burn Care Netherlands hopes to build a complete database of outcomes in the coming years, providing insight into a patient's quality of life after the burn injury or a specific condition. "By combining the outcome of these questionnaires with clinical data on the accident and treatment, we can analyze which treatment paths lead to the highest quality of life for the patient."

Evaluation

BORN has now been fully implemented at all burn centers covered by Burn Care Netherlands. Van Dammen: "Based on the results of the measurements, a follow-up discussion takes place with many patients in which the objectives in the treatment plan are set or adjusted. In addition, it provides insight into the quality of life before and after a specific operation. We are now entering a phase of evaluation in which questions such as "are we measuring the right outcomes and are we doing this with the right measurement tools?" are answered. In addition, the processes surrounding outcome measurements are being closely scrutinized. All in all, a big step forward in taking patient-centered care and burn care to the next level."