Organisation:
Daan Theeuwes Centre
Health care sector:
Neurorehabilitation
Implemented solution:
The Daan Theeuwes Centre (DTC) is a specialised rehabilitation centre focusing on young people aged 16 to 35 who have suffered severe acquired brain injury (ABI). This injury can result from, for example, a traffic accident, a fall, or a stroke. The DTC provides an intensive treatment programme designed to help these young people achieve their maximum potential and improve their quality of life.
The DTC’s treatment programme is highly intensive and multidisciplinary. This means that a team of diverse healthcare professionals—including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychologists, and physicians—works closely together to develop and implement a tailored treatment plan for each patient. This holistic approach ensures that all aspects of the recovery process are addressed, from physical rehabilitation to cognitive and emotional support.
The DTC has developed an innovative system for monitoring the progress of its patients’ rehabilitation pathways. This system, known as the Measurement Feedback System (MFS, or “meetstraat” informally), uses structured clinical measurements recorded in QuestManager. The results of these measurements are visually presented per patient via dashboards in QuestManager, which are directly accessible to the treatment teams for use in patient care. These dashboards provide a clear and up-to-date overview of each patient’s diagnostics and progress.
The clinical measurements are not only used for direct patient care but are also stored in a database. These data provide a valuable resource for care evaluation and scientific research, with the aim of continuously improving neurorehabilitation. Through this systematic approach, the DTC can evaluate and optimise the effectiveness of treatments.
In addition to the benefits of the MFS for detailed multidisciplinary diagnostics and progress monitoring, the DTC also uses the clinical information for the Health Intelligence Program (HIP). This programme focuses on care evaluation, precision medicine, and developing decision support for the treatment team.
Within the HIP, data from the MFS is periodically reviewed during evaluation sessions with different discipline groups and management. The aim of these sessions is to identify strengths and weaknesses in treatment. These insights lead to care innovations and contribute to a continuous cycle of improvements in patient care.
The DTC’s scientific research within the HIP focuses on developing predictive models that support the transition to precision medicine. This shifts the focus from research on characteristics of diagnostic groups within rehabilitation medicine to a more individualised approach. The goal is for care to be increasingly tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of each patient.
The success of the Measurement Feedback System (MFS) at the DTC is largely due to careful implementation and the active involvement of healthcare professionals. Below is an overview of the key steps in the implementation process:
Preparation Phase: During this phase, support was created among all stakeholders and a project group was formed. This provided a solid foundation and a shared vision for the project.
Design Phase: In this phase, the measurement trajectories were designed. The project group consulted with healthcare professionals to determine which measurement instruments would be valuable for patient treatment. These instruments were tested against national and international guidelines and assessed for quality.
Construction Phase: Next, the measurement instruments and trajectories were integrated into the system, adapted to the specific situation and needs of the DTC. Throughout this phase, clinicians provided continuous feedback to ensure the system functioned optimally.
Go-Live: After approval from all stakeholders, the MFS was put into use, marking an important milestone in the project.
Monitoring and Evaluation: The use of the MFS is continuously monitored. Periodically, both completed and missed measurements are reviewed. Clinicians receive an overview of missed measurements so these can still be completed. The MFS is also evaluated annually per department during evaluation meetings.
Thanks to the involvement of healthcare professionals throughout the entire implementation process and the transparent reporting by the DTC, the response rate of completed measurements is high: 87% of issued measurements are completed. This high percentage contributes to the effectiveness and reliability of the MFS, ultimately benefiting the quality of care for the rehabilitation patients.
Within the DTC treatment pathway, patient functioning is measured every six weeks. Currently, there are more than 70 different clinical measurements, divided over seven measurement trajectories, specifically tailored to the DTC’s practice. These measurements are carefully completed and visualised through dashboards accessible to the relevant healthcare professionals. This ensures that the treatment team always has the most current and relevant information for making important decisions.
This approach benefits not only the current treatment but also contributes to the ongoing data collection at the DTC. The collected data is analysed to gain insight into the population being treated at the rehabilitation centre. This is particularly valuable as the representativeness of scientific literature is often limited for the DTC’s specific target group. Thanks to its own data collection and scientific research, the centre can use the outcomes to further improve future treatments.
More information can be found on the Daan Theeuwes Centre website: Measurement Feedback System – Daan Theeuwes Centrum.
The DTC aims to collaborate more closely with other rehabilitation centres in the future. By comparing dashboards and data, they hope to gain even more insight into the course of treatments within the rehabilitation sector. This collaboration would not only improve the quality of care but also generate valuable data for further analysis and research. Additionally, the DTC focuses on optimising data collection and gaining insight into the outcomes. The findings from this data are of great importance to the entire rehabilitation sector, providing valuable information on both the implementation of structured measurements and the results of scientific research. By sharing these insights, the sector as a whole can benefit, and treatments can be further improved.
Summarised:
1. What is QuestManager and how is it used at the Daan Theeuwes Centre (DTC)?
QuestManager is used to monitor the progress of rehabilitation pathways through structured clinical measurements. The outcomes of these measurements are visually presented via dashboards accessible to treatment teams.
2. What benefits does QuestManager offer to healthcare professionals and patients?
QuestManager supports clinicians in making important decisions by giving them access to detailed information on patient progress. This benefits current treatment and data collection for future treatments.
3. What are the success factors for the implementation of QuestManager?
Success factors include the involvement of staff from Lighthouse and healthcare professionals during implementation, creating support, and continuously monitoring and periodically evaluating QuestManager’s use.
Key Features of QuestManager at the DTC:
