Multidisciplinary care case studies

To establish a multidisciplinary care (MDC) treatment planning meeting for the management of breast cancer in a rural/regional area consisting of one large regional centre with one public and two private hospitals, and a number of smaller rural hospitals covered by four main health services.

A number of barriers and obstacles were faced in setting up the team. The majority of stakeholders voiced concerns about the time that would be required to attend MDC meetings and the impact this may have on their clinical practice.

Clinicians were also concerned about breaches of privacy with patients being discussed in a team environment.

In the regional/rural setting, most clinicians work in both the public and private sector. Those with a significant private practice were unwilling to present patients at a meeting held in the public health service. Rural clinicians also identified the lack of oncologists at MDC meetings in rural areas and the need to have linkage to the larger regional centre.

Establishment of MDC across a large regional and rural area required face-to-face consultation with stakeholders in all sectors, discipline groups and health services. Meetings provided information about MDC and, in particular, the advantages for clinicians and patients and the opportunity to discuss issues and look at the way forward. Within the health services, the executive team was invited to planning meetings to seek support for the necessary changes.

As a result of the consultation, many clinicians recognised that the development of MDC represented best practice and subsequently met to attempt to overcome the obstacles.

Within six months the regional MDC team was meeting on a weekly basis and prospective treatment planning was established. The clinicians were initially concerned about the time commitment, but quickly recognised that most discussion took place at meetings, thus reducing the need for telephone calls and communication at other times.

To overcome clinician concern about discussing private patients in the public sector, an agreement was reached to meet at one of the private hospitals and to date the team has continued with this practice.

Team members have realised that benefit could be gained by videoconferencing to the rural areas and initial discussions have taken place to plan this strategy.

Weekly meetings are held to prospectively plan treatment and care for women diagnosed with early, advanced and recurrent breast disease. On average, 22 health care professionals attend the meetings, but there are often 28–30 attendees. The core team consists of one or more pathologists, radiologists, surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists, along with general practitioners, breast care nurses and social workers. One rural area has commenced videoconference linkage to the regional hospital, which is the main cancer referral centre, to ensure oncology input to treatment planning.

Involving general practitioners in MDC.

To ensure that GPs participated in the planning phase, with a view to their participation in MDC meetings, focus groups were held at clinics in the regional area and through the Division of General Practice in two rural health services. Attendance at these meetings was impressive and though the attendees identified many obstacles to attendance at MDC meetings, they were enthusiastic about participating.

GPs routinely attend the MDC meeting in the regional centre and on many occasions in the rural centres. The relevant Division of General Practice is notified of the name of the GPs who are to have patients discussed that week and through this mechanism, GPs are invited to the meeting. The liaison GP from the Division of General Practice attends the majority of meetings and is able to convey information about treatment planning to those GPs unable to attend the meeting.

The need to develop an identifiable team and strengthen links between members was identified.

Diagrammatic representations of clinical management pathways were developed for each hospital site and posters summarising these pathways, including photographs of team members, were displayed in relevant waiting areas. Meetings with all clinicians from across the Collaboration were held early during the set-up phase to emphasise the benefits of a MDC approach and promote the use of the clinical management pathway. A logo was developed specifically for the Collaboration and used on letterhead distributed to all relevant facilities in the region during the implementation of strategies.

Promotion of the team through the clinical management pathways and Collaboration logo strengthen the team identify and brought awareness to MDC for both clinicians and patients.