Escalated Care Pathways (ECP) pilot continues to show positive benefits
ECP continues to produce encouraging evidence and showing positive benefits for health providers and patients.
To recap, ECP is our largest test of value-based commissioning. It’s our four-year pilot coming to an end in December next year. ECP was designed with the sector to enable us to test different ways of working with the sector. The pilot has been a very informative and has helped us design Integrated Care Pathways (ICP) - a standardised service delivery model that will enable a national rollout. The first pathway will be Integrated Care Pathways for musculoskeletal injuries (ICPMSK), expected to come out in December 2023.
Here's what we’re seeing through the ECP pilot.
Accepted claims
At the end of September just over 10,000 patients have been accepted into the Escalated Care Pathways (ECP) service.
Improved outcomes and experience
The data demonstrates significant improvement in outcome and high levels of satisfaction. Both Māori and non- Māori patients are continuing to report improved outcomes and having a very positive experience.
What are providers saying?
In September we shared with you some of the results from our ECP providers survey conducted earlier this year. We had an overwhelming positive response, where 88% of respondents (n=153; 18% survey response rate) were satisfied with ECP and 90% felt that the effectiveness of dealing with our patients under ECP has improved compared to business as usual.
Through the survey we received some great verbatim feedback. Here’s some of the encouraging comments we received from current ECP providers:
“More timely access to investigation and treatment. Ability to spend the time required with the patient…shared decision making… reduced waiting time for imaging and management reduces recovery and return to work time” - Physiotherapist
“Faster and improved outcomes… more effective communication with ACC, increased client satisfaction, better MDT and collaborative team approaches, better inclusion of different treatment providers -including external providers” – Rehab provider
“More effective, quicker treatment and earlier return to normal occupation. Greater patient satisfaction” – Specialist
“Patients are much happier in ECP than other ACC programmes. They are seeing specialist more quickly and if surgery is needed there is not a long wait for this. I was a Case Manager at ACC for 15 years and this programme far exceeds any other programme. I've been amazed at the amount of people who stay at work which is saving in weekly compensation. If these clients were on normal ACC pathway, they would be waiting months to see a specialist, then an MRI whereas ECP they have MRI, surgery and back to work within the same time frame that they would have been waiting for an initial assessment” - Other
“Better interdisciplinary interaction. Patient more in tune with recovery leading to unprompted patient satisfaction and outcomes” - Physiotherapist
“Clients are far more responsive to their rehab, injury and outcomes under the programme. Having previously worked at ACC and managed clients, I notice that clients respond differently to being cared for under the programme as its less about "ACC" telling them what to do and they feel more empowered around working collaboratively with the IDT team towards their recovery… having the IDT working together and being able to monitor someone's recovery also means when setbacks occur everyone is on the same page and aware of this at the same time and a plan can be made relatively quickly to get things back on track” - Other
Integrated Care Pathways Musculoskeletal (ICPMSK) update
Last month we let you know about the expected ICPMSK services and patient entry criteria. This month we’ve been finalising a few features of the service, including the service bundle pricing and exit criteria. We will share this information with you next year.
Supplier and provider reminder
We’ve previously advised that suppliers will not need to setup a national service or be committed to an already established service provider. We want to encourage local health professionals to partner with their colleagues to meet the needs of their local communities. More details on this will be available next year.
For the latest information on ICPMSK, please visit www.acc.co.nz/icpmsk