Bridging the chasm between patients' needs and current rehabilitation care: perceptions of adults presenting for primary care in the Eastern Cape.

BACKGROUND: The need for rehabilitation in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs) is rapidly increasing as more people are living longer with chronic diseases. Primary health care (PHC) is ideally placed to provide the spectrum of care required to meet most of the complex and evolving population's health needs locally. This study aimed to describe the patient journeys of adults attending primary care in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa to understand the factors that affected their access to primary care rehabilitation services (or the lack thereof) and obtain suggestions on how rehabilitation may be enhanced at primary care. METHODS: A maximum variation sampling approach was used to purposefully select persons with varied chronic health conditions and demographic characteristics to gain diverse perspectives regarding their rehabilitation needs and ways in which the current rehabilitation services at primary care may be enhanced. Data were collected via face-to-face semi-structured interviews between March and June 2022 which were electronically recorded. Inductive thematic analysis of transcribed data was done and coded in Atlas.ti.22®. RESULTS: Twenty-five adult patients participated in the study. The patients had different experiences at their local PHC facilities that affected their access to rehabilitation at primary care. The study found that most patients were not able to access rehabilitation at primary care. There were several personal and contextual factors that resulted in the patients having a low perceived need to receive rehabilitation that potentially lowered patients' demand for and utilization of rehabilitation at primary care. Patients suggested increasing rehabilitation workforce at primary care, improving availability of assistive devices, increasing their knowledge regarding rehabilitation, and facilitating socio-economic integration into their communities. CONCLUSIONS: Patients attending primary care are not guaranteed access to rehabilitation by virtue of having entered the PHC system. It is important to consider the patient perspectives regarding their health needs and suggestions for enhancing care.

Rehabilitation Capacity in South Africa-A Situational Analysis.

Rehabilitation in South Africa (SA) operates independently of major health services and reforms, despite the increasing rehabilitation need. With the introduction of National Health Insurance (NHI), SA is facing another major health reform. Evidence is needed on the current SA rehabilitation situation, regarding shortcomings, opportunities, and priority strategic strengthening actions. We aimed to describe the current rehabilitation capacity in the SA public health sector, which serves the majority and most vulnerable South Africans. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in five provinces, using the World Health Organisation's Template for Rehabilitation Information Collection (TRIC). Participants were purposively selected for their insights and experiences of rehabilitation in specific government departments, health sectors, organisations, and/or services. TRIC responses were analysed descriptively. Participants explained how timely and effective rehabilitation produced long-term health, social, and economic benefits. Positive initiatives were reported for rehabilitation data collection, service design, and innovation. Challenges included inadequacies in human resources, the integration of rehabilitation at primary care, guidelines, and specialised long-term care facilities. The continuity of care across levels of care was sub-optimal due to inefficient referral systems. Promoting and improving rehabilitation nationally requires concerted, innovative, collaborative, and integrated efforts from multiple stakeholders within, and outside, the health system.

Rehabilitation and primary care treatment guidelines, South Africa.

The World Health Organization recognizes rehabilitation as an essential component of universal health coverage (UHC). In many countries, UHC builds on a standard benefits package of services that is informed by the country's essential medicines list, standard treatment guidelines and primary health care essential laboratory list. In South Africa, primary health care is largely provided and managed by primary health-care nurses and medical officers in accordance with primary health care standard treatment guidelines. However, rehabilitation is mostly excluded from these guidelines. This paper describes the 10-year process that led to rehabilitation referral recommendations being considered for inclusion in South Africa's primary health care standard treatment guidelines. There were five key events: (i) a breakthrough moment; (ii) producing a scientific evidence synthesis and formulating recommendations; (iii) presenting recommendations to the national essential medicines list committee; (iv) mapping rehabilitation recommendations onto relevant treatment guideline sections; and (v) submitting revised recommendations to the committee for final consideration. The main lesson learnt is that, by working together, rehabilitation professionals can be of sufficient number to make a difference, improve service delivery and increase referrals to rehabilitation from primary health care. A remaining challenge is the lack of a rehabilitation representative on the national essential medicines list committee, which could hamper understanding of rehabilitation and of the complexities of the supporting evidence.

L'Organisation mondiale de la Santé considère la réadaptation comme un élément indispensable de la couverture sanitaire universelle (CSU). Dans de nombreux pays, la CSU repose sur un modèle de prestations de services qui tient compte de la liste nationale de médicaments essentiels, des directives thérapeutiques normalisées et d'une liste des analyses en laboratoire essentielles dans le cadre des soins primaires. En Afrique du Sud, les soins primaires sont majoritairement assurés et gérés par du personnel infirmier et médical, conformément aux directives thérapeutiques normalisées en la matière. En revanche, la réadaptation n'y figure généralement pas. Le présent document décrit les dix années de processus qui ont permis d'émettre des recommandations de référence relatives à la réadaptation, que l'Afrique du Sud envisage d'inscrire dans ses directives thérapeutiques normalisées de soins primaires. Cinq événements clés ont été retenus: (i) un moment charnière; (ii) la réalisation d'une synthèse des preuves scientifiques et la formulation de recommandations; (iii) la présentation de ces recommandations au comité responsable de la liste nationale de médicaments essentiels; (iv) l'intégration des recommandations en matière de réadaptation dans les rubriques correspondantes des directives thérapeutiques; et enfin, (v) la soumission des recommandations révisées au comité pour examen final. Le principal enseignement tiré est qu'en collaborant, les professionnels de la réadaptation peuvent être suffisamment nombreux pour faire la différence, améliorer la qualité des services et augmenter les transferts depuis les soins primaires vers les structures de réadaptation. Un défi subsiste: l'absence de représentants du secteur au sein du comité responsable de la liste nationale de médicaments essentiels, ce qui pourrait nuire à la compréhension de la réadaptation et du degré de complexité des faits qui l'étayent.

La Organización Mundial de la Salud reconoce que la rehabilitación es un componente esencial de la cobertura sanitaria universal (CSU). En muchos países, la cobertura sanitaria universal depende de un paquete estándar de servicios que se basa en la lista de medicamentos esenciales del país, las directrices de tratamiento estándar y la lista de laboratorios esenciales de atención primaria. En Sudáfrica, la atención primaria la prestan y gestionan en gran medida el personal de enfermería y los médicos de atención primaria, de conformidad con las directrices de tratamiento estándar de la atención primaria. Sin embargo, la rehabilitación queda excluida en su mayor parte de estas directrices. Este artículo describe el proceso de 10 años que llevó a que se contemplara la posibilidad de incluir las recomendaciones de derivación a rehabilitación en las directrices de tratamiento estándar de la atención primaria en Sudáfrica. Hubo cinco acontecimientos clave: (i) un momento decisivo; (ii) la elaboración de una síntesis de datos científicos y la formulación de recomendaciones; (iii) la presentación de las recomendaciones al comité de la lista nacional de medicamentos esenciales; (iv) la adaptación de las recomendaciones de rehabilitación a las secciones pertinentes de las directrices de tratamiento; y (v) la presentación de las recomendaciones revisadas al comité para su estudio final. La principal lección aprendida es que, trabajando juntos, los profesionales de la rehabilitación pueden ser lo bastante numerosos como para marcar la diferencia, mejorar la prestación de servicios y aumentar las derivaciones a la rehabilitación desde la atención primaria. Un desafío que aún persiste es que no hay un representante de la rehabilitación en el comité de la lista nacional de medicamentos esenciales, lo que podría dificultar la comprensión de la rehabilitación y de las complejidades de las pruebas que la sustentan.

Describing the Rehabilitation Workforce Capacity in the Public Sector of Three Rural Provinces in South Africa: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The World Health Organisation emphasises the importance of addressing gaps in health systems where rehabilitation services are poorly integrated. In South Africa, regions with the largest disability rates are usually the areas where rehabilitation is least accessible, due to inadequate workforce capacity. The first step towards addressing workforce capacity is to determine current capacity. This paper presents a cross-sectional study to describe rehabilitation workforce data in the public sector of three rural South African provinces. A web-based therapist survey and a telephonic facility survey was conducted. Data were collected regarding total number of therapists per province, age, years employed, qualifications, salary level, profession type, level of care, and rural/urban distribution. Descriptive statistics were conducted, while Chi-squared tests compared professions regarding highest qualification and salary level. Population-adjusted ratios were calculated using national uninsured population statistics. The web-based survey had 639 responses while the telephonic survey reported on 1166 therapists. Results indicated that the mean age of therapists across the respective provinces was 28, 35 and 31 years of age, and the mean employment years in the respective provinces were three, eight and five years. Most of the workforce (n = 574) had a bachelor's degree as their highest qualification. A total of 27% of the workforce were community service therapists and 61% of therapists earned a production-level salary. Occupational therapy was best (40%) and speech and audiology therapy least (7%) represented. Three percent of therapists worked at primary level, versus eighty percent at secondary level. Forty percent of therapists worked in rural areas. Workforce density per province ranged from 0.71-0.98 per 10,000 population. Overall, results show that the rehabilitation workforce density is low, and that the distribution of therapists between rural and urban settings, and levels of care, is inequitable. Considering the rise in rehabilitation need, prioritisation and strengthening of the rehabilitation workforce capacity is vital to ensure integration across all levels of care and service.

Rehabilitation workforce descriptors: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: A comprehensive, accurate description of workforce capacity is important for health service planning, to ensure that health services meet local needs. In many low- to middle-income countries, the government's service planning ability is barred by the lack of accurate and/or comprehensively-described workforce data. In these low-resource settings, lack of appropriate planning leads to limited or no access to rehabilitation services. Variability in the definitions and scope of rehabilitation professionals further complicates the understanding of rehabilitation services and how it should be planned and delivered. Another challenge to describing the primary rehabilitation workforce capacity, is the lack of standardised and agreed-upon global metrics. These inconsistencies highlight the need for a comprehensive understanding of current practices, which can offer guidance to countries wishing to describe their rehabilitation workforce. This study aimed to scope the range of descriptors and metrics used to describe the rehabilitation workforce and to compare the workforce across countries that used similar descriptors in published reports. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted according to the five-step framework first developed by Arksey and O'Malley. The review included a broad search of literature regarding the rehabilitation workforce and how countries quantify and describe the rehabilitation workforce. RESULTS: Nineteen studies on rehabilitation workforce capacity were identified. All but one (a cross-sectional study) were database reviews. The main descriptors and indicators used to describe the rehabilitation workforce capacity were profession type, age, gender, distributions between urban/rural, level of care, and private/public sectors, absolute count totals, and population-adjusted ratios. CONCLUSION: This scoping review provided an overview of descriptors and indicators used to describe the rehabilitation workforce capacity internationally. The study is a first step towards developing standardised descriptors and metrics to quantify the rehabilitation workforce capacity, that will allow for comparison between different settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This scoping review protocol has been registered with the Open Science Framework (http://osf.10/7h6xz).

Descriptive Review of Online Information Resources for People With Stroke: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: People with stroke and their caregivers experience numerous information needs; internet-based resources may offer cost-effective ways to improve access to information about this condition and its management, including the availability of resources and support. The quality of online health information is, therefore, an important consideration for both developers and consumers of these online resources. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to map and evaluate the content, readability, understandability, design, and quality characteristics of freely available online information resources (ie, websites) that empower people with stroke and their caregivers with information and self-help strategies poststroke. METHODS: This descriptive review will follow the five systematic and rigorous methodological steps that are recommended for scoping reviews, which include the following: (1) identifying the research question, (2) identifying relevant studies, (3) selecting the studies, (4) charting the data, and (5) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. Data will then be synthesized and analyzed thematically. RESULTS: As of February 2021, the scoping review is in the data extraction stage. Data will be synthesized, and the first results are expected to be submitted for publication in an open-access peer-reviewed journal in August 2021. In addition, we will develop an accessible summary of the results for stakeholder meetings. Ethical approval is not required for this review, as it will only include publicly available information. CONCLUSIONS: This study is novel and will evaluate the typology, content, and design-related criteria, including accessibility, aesthetics, navigability, interactivity, privacy, and data protection, of online information resources for stroke. The review will be limited to online resources published in English. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/23174.

Spinal tuberculosis: A systematic review of case studies and development of an evidence-based clinical guidance tool for early detection.

RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES: Despite research being done on spinal tuberculosis, diagnosing this condition at an early stage remains problematic due to its insidious onset and the varying symptoms being associated. Most individuals present to the health care facility with either simple back pain at an early stage or neurological complications at a later stage, when spinal compression and vertebral collapse have occurred as a result of delayed diagnosis. The prevention of secondary complications is therefore dependent on early recognition and diagnosis. The objective of this review was to identify common clinical patterns in case presentations and develop an evidence-based clinical guidance tool to assist clinicians in the early identification of spinal tuberculosis. METHOD: A comprehensive literature search was conducted for published spinal tuberculosis case studies, which yielded 28 cases after critical appraisal. Data from the studies were categorized in order to assist with a factor analysis and the development of an evidence framework for screening and diagnosing spinal tuberculosis. An evidence-based clinical guidance tool was then designed from the data obtained. RESULTS: Factors associated with spinal tuberculosis and frequently reported symptoms and physical signs with which the patient could present upon assessment were identified. Options for investigations at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels were also identified. CONCLUSION: Through the use of an evidence-based clinical guidance tool, the clinician could be guided in the early suspicion and management of individuals with spinal tuberculosis and prevention of secondary complications.