TY - JOUR
AU - Darbyshire, Julie Lorraine
AU - Greenhalgh, Trisha
AU - Bakerly, Nawar D.
AU - Balasundaram, Kumaran
AU - Baley, Sareeta
AU - Ball, Megan
AU - Bullock, Emily
AU - Cooper, Rowena
AU - Davies, Helen E.
AU - de Kock, Johannes H.
AU - Echevarria, Carlos
AU - Elkin, Sarah
AU - Evans, Rachel
AU - Falope, Zacc
AU - Flynn, Cliodhna
AU - Fraser, Emily
AU - Halpin, Stephen
AU - Jones, Samantha
AU - Lardner, Rachel
AU - Lee, Cassie
AU - Lovett, Ashliegh
AU - Masey, Victoria
AU - Master, Harsha
AU - Mir, Ghazala
AU - Mosley, Adam
AU - Mullard, Jordan
AU - O'Connor, Rory J.
AU - Parkin, Amy
AU - Pick, Anton
AU - Scott, Janet T.
AU - Smith, Nikki
AU - Tucker, Emma
AU - Williams, Paul
AU - Winch, Darren
AU - Wood, Conor
AU - Sivan, Manoj
PY - 2024
DA - August
TI - Improving quality in adult long covid services: Findings from the LOCOMOTION quality improvement collaborative
JO - Clinical Medicine
VL - 24
IS - 5
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinme.2024.100237
AB - The protracted form of COVID-19 known as ‘long covid’ was first described in 2020. Its symptoms, course and prognosis vary widely; some patients have a multi-system, disabling and prolonged illness. In 2021, ring-fenced funding was provided to establish 90 long covid clinics in England; some clinics were also established in Scotland and Wales. The NIHR-funded LOCOMOTION project implemented a UK-wide quality improvement collaborative involving ten of these clinics, which ran from 2021 to 2023. At regular online meetings held approximately 8-weekly, participants prioritised topics, discussed research evidence and guidelines, and presented exemplar case histories and clinic audits. A patient advisory group also held a priority-setting exercise, participated in quality meetings and undertook a service evaluation audit. The goal of successive quality improvement cycles aimed at changing practice to align with evidence was sometimes hard to achieve because definitive evidence did not yet exist in this new condition; many patients had comorbidities; and clinics were practically constrained in various ways. Nevertheless, much progress was made and a series of ‘best practice’ guides was produced, covering general assessment and management; breathing difficulties; orthostatic tachycardia and other autonomic symptoms; fatigue and cognitive impairment; and vocational rehabilitation. This paper summarises key findings with the frontline clinician in mind.
PB - Elsevier
UR - https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/5bdc76ca-e9df-436d-9b42-a3294b652bdd
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER