Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, affect approximately 25,000 individuals in Wales and has a significant impact of an individual’s quality of life.
Since 2017 the IBD team in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has gradually introduced a suite of measures to improve the care for patients with IBD. The aim of these measures is to reduce the occurrence and severity of flares, to improve management to the condition in the community and prevent the need to hospital admission and invasive surgeries.
CEDAR looked into how changes to the IBD service provision in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board impacted patient outcomes and care costs, including changes to emergency hospital admission, rates of surgery and the use of biologics. Through the use of surveys, in-depth interviews and analysis of secondary data for health outcomes, CEDAR gathered service-users perception of the service.
The evaluation found positive results, indicating high levels of patient satisfaction, decreased rates of emergency admissions and reduced surgery rates. There was also a potential cost benefit due to a shift in cost from emergency surgery to the use of biologics.