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. 2024 Mar 7;19(3):e0298374.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298374. eCollection 2024.

Quality improvement exercises in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) services: A scoping review

Katie Ridsdale  1 , Kajal Khurana  1 , Azizat Temidayo Taslim  2 , Jessica K Robinson  2 , Faith Solanke  2 , Wei Shao Tung  2 , Elena Sheldon  1 , Daniel Hind  1 , Alan J Lobo  3
Affiliations

Quality improvement exercises in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) services: A scoping review

Katie Ridsdale et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: Quality Improvement initiatives aim to improve care in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). These address a range of aspects of care including adherence to published guidelines. The objectives of this review were to document the scope and quality of published quality improvement initiatives in IBD, highlight successful interventions and the outcomes achieved.

Design/method: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Web of Science. Two reviewers independently screened and extracted data. We included peer reviewed articles or conference proceedings reporting initiatives intended to improve the quality of IBD care, with both baseline and prospectively collected follow-up data. Initiatives were categorised based on problems, interventions and outcomes. We used the Quality Improvement Minimum Quality Criteria Set instrument to appraise articles. We mapped the focus of the articles to the six domains of the IBD standards.

Results: 100 studies were identified (35 full text; 65 conference abstracts). Many focused on vaccination, medication, screening, or meeting multiple quality measures. Common interventions included provider education, the development of new service protocols, or enhancements to the electronic medical records. Studies principally focused on areas covered by the IBD standards 'ongoing care' and 'the IBD service', with less focus on standards 'pre-diagnosis', 'newly diagnosed', 'flare management', 'surgery' or 'inpatient care'.

Conclusion: Good quality evidence exists on approaches to improve the quality of a narrow range of IBD service functions, but there are many topic areas with little or no published quality improvement initiatives. We highlight successful quality improvement interventions and offer recommendations to improve reporting of future studies.

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Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Professor Alan Lobo has acted as a consultant and advisory board member for Takeda Pharma, Janssen and Bristol Myers Squibb. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flow diagram illustrating study identification and exclusion in this review as recommended by PRISMA SCR [116].
Fig 2
Fig 2. The categorised problems addressed by Inflammatory Bowel Disease quality improvement reports (n = 100), separated into adult/paediatric populations.
26 studies reported an adult population, 44 reported a paediatric population, and the population was not stated in 30 studies.
Fig 3
Fig 3. QI-MQCS [15] score for published Inflammatory Bowel Disease qualit0y improvement reports included in this review (n = 100).
Reports are split into full texts (n = 35) and conference abstracts (n = 65). Maximum possible score is 16.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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