Treant Zorggroep is bridging the gap between data and personalised care through the implementation of PROMs

In 2020, Treant Zorggroep started the implementation of PROMs (also known as OnlinePROMS) hospital-wide. Today, a wide range of specialities, from urology to orthopaedics, and from pain medicine to surgery, use the system to measure patient-reported outcomes.

Anja Willemsma

Anja Willemsma works as a quality and safety advisor on the medical staff of Treant Zorggroep. Among other responsibilities, she coordinates the implementation of PROMs across various specialities.

The reason for using PROMs

“More and more specialities expressed interest in measuring PROMs. This was caused by both the (mandatory) delivery indicators and the intrinsic motivation of our healthcare providers to understand the outcomes of care provided at both patient and organisational levels.

The implementation took off in 2020, because you provide good support throughout the process, allowing us to focus on rolling out the measurements within the hospital.”

More and more specialities expressed interest in measuring PROMs.

How does the implementation of PROMs proceed?

“You are speaking the language of both the front office and our specialists, focusing on integrating the care process rather than on the software we’re going to be using. The software adapts to the process, which is how it should be, of course. Based on the internal process, you draw up a plan of action tailored to the working method of that specific department.

At present, we notice that departments which have already started are sharing their positive experiences with other departments, leading to more and more specialities joining. As a result, we have already extended the PROMs to include breast and colon cancer, dialysis and rehabilitation.”

You are speaking the language of both the front office and our specialists.

What do you think of Value-based Healthcare (VBHC)?

“It mainly involves collecting data to gain insight into the outcomes of care and to support the various choices that can be made during treatment. That’s what we are striving for as an organisation. It’s our ambition.

However, to implement VBHC, we first need to have our data collection properly in order, obviously. That’s what we’re focusing on right now.”

EPR integration

Recently, the PROMs web viewer was implemented at Treant, enabling the results of the questionnaires to be viewed in the EPR during consultations. In addition, we have started setting up a direct link between the EPR and the data warehouse. This link ensures that when the care pathway is created in the EPR, the patient is also automatically added to PROMs. This saves administrative work and prevents patients from falling through the cracks.

Future plans

In 2020, Treant focused on starting with as many departments as possible. They will now start using the collected data to examine, among other things, whether there is a link between the outcomes (PROMs) and the patient experience of care (PREMs).

In addition, in surgery and anaesthesia, they want to explore how they can use PROMs data from patients undergoing gallbladder surgery or in the palliative phase of their care to make the information provided in the Patient Journey app more personalised.

“We will then use the data to provide insight into the impact of our care and, at the same time, offer the patient personalised guidance. This will enable us to bring together the two worlds of data collection and personalised patient information.”

This will enable us to bring together the two worlds of data collection and personalised patient information.