Utilising co-design to improve outpatient neurological care in a rural setting

It has been identified that the physiotherapy needs of patients with central neurological conditions are specific and that this cohort are generally under-serviced in rural and remote areas in Australia. A quality improvement project was undertaken to improve patient experience in outpatient physiotherapy services in Tasmania, facilitating increased selfefficacy and quality of life, in patients with central chronic neurological conditions.. An experience-based co-design approach was utilised, involving past and current patients as well as physiotherapy staff in the project design, data collection, analysis and evaluation phases. The results suggest that timely access to care and goal achievement are common areas of need across both patient and staff cohorts. Patients also identified that shared-decision making is important for improving patient experience and staff were generally unclear on what services were available. The findings from this study demonstrate the importance of including patients and staff in the health service improvement process.