The impact of introducing an ICF-based rehabilitation tool on staff satisfaction with multidisciplinary team care in rheumatology: an exploratory study

Objective: To investigate the impact of introducing a rehabilitation tool on multidisciplinary team members' satisfaction with team functioning, team conferences and written information exchange. Design: Pretest posttest design. Setting: Day patient and inpatient wards of a rheumatology rehabilitation clinic. Subjects: Members of two multidisciplinary teams. Interventions: The introduction of an electronic version of the Rehabilitation Activities Profile. Main measures: The Group Environment Scale and questionnaires on satisfaction with team conferences and administrative procedures administered before (T1) and 12 months after (T2) the introduction of the Rehabilitation Activities Profile. Results: The Group Environment Scale cohesion subscale was significantly higher at T2 than at T1 in the day patient setting (mean difference 1.9; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.3; 3.4), whereas in the inpatient setting the Group Environment Scale cohesion and the order and organization subscales were significantly lower (mean differences -3.0; 95% CI -4.7; -1.3 and -2.7; 95% CI -4.3; -1.1, respectively). Satisfaction with team conferences was significantly higher at T2 compared with T1 in the day patient setting (mean difference total score 0.6; 95% CI 0.3; 1.0), but not in the inpatient setting (mean difference -0.3; 95% CI -0.7; 0.2). In both settings, the proportions of health professionals spending >10 minutes on administrative tasks per patient contact were significantly higher at T2 than at T1. Conclusions: In the day patient setting, the introduction of a rehabilitation tool had a positive effect on team members' satisfaction with team functioning and team conferences, whereas in the inpatient setting the effect was absent or the opposite. In both settings, the time spent on administrative tasks increased.