P523 Quality, safety and equity of care outcomes for inflammatory bowel disease patients at four tertiary referral centres in Australia using a cloud based management system Crohn’s Colitis Care (CCCare): A real world observational study.

Cheema, M.(1)*;Narouz, I.(2);Pipicella, J.(3);Garden , F.(4);Lynch, K.(5);Andrews, J.(5);Ghaly, S.(2);Connor, S.(1);

(1)Liverpool Hospital, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Liverpool, Australia;(2)St. Vincent's hospital, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Sydney, Australia;(3)University of New South Wales, Medicine SWS Clinical School, Liverpool, Australia;(4)University of New South Wales, School of Clinical Medicine- South Western Sydney Clinical Campus, Liverpool, Australia;(5)Royal Adelaide Hospital, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Adelaide, Australia;

Background

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a global problem and Australia has amongst the highest prevalence rates. This study looked to assess the quality, safety and equity of care across four specialised IBD centres in Australia over a 12-month period using the cloud-based IBD clinical management system called Crohn’s Colitis Care (CCCare). This study aimed to define existing care at each centre and the range of performance across each centre to propose potential benchmarks for optimal quality IBD care. 

Methods

The study was conducted across four tertiary IBD centres in Australia (Centres A, B, and C were public hospitals and D was a private centre). De-identified data within the backend CCCare research registry was audited between 1st of July 2021 to 31st August 2022. People with IBD who had a clinical assessment documented within the platform during this 12-month period were included.
We assessed quality of IBD care using disease activity based on patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), biomarkers and endoscopy; surgery rates; health maintenance indicators including vaccination and skin cancer screening rates and; key performance indicators including steroid use, smoking rates and current opioid use. Safety of care was assessed using adverse events from therapy and hospital admission due to therapeutic complications. Equity of care examined education levels and ethnicity. 

Results

A total of 1889 patients were included. 63% had Crohn’s disease and 37% had ulcerative colitis. 51% of the cohort was female. The median age was 39 years (IQR 30-53) and the median disease duration was 8.4 years (IQR 3.3-15.7) (Table 1). Current steroid use was between 6% to 15.4%.  Faecal calprotectin (FCP) remission rates (250μg/mg) were between 65-84% and patient reported outcome (PRO-2) remission rates were between 76-88% with the highest rates observed at Centre D (Figure 1). 74 patients underwent a surgical procedure. COVID-19 vaccination rates were between 40.1% to 88.8% with the highest rates once again observed at Centre D. 3% of the cohort was documented as currently using opioid medications. 12.2% were recorded as currently smoking at Centre A compared to 2.6% at Centre D. 55 medication related adverse events were recorded and 94 patients had a hospital admission during the study period. 

 

Conclusion

This study showcases how CCCare can readily provide researchers with granular, real-world data to audit the quality of IBD care at 4 specialised centres in Australia over a 12-month period. While there were some differences (higher vaccination rates, lower smoking and steroid use rates at Centre D), quality and safety of care was still fairly uniform across the various sites and can serve as a standard of care for IBD patients in Australia.