Reporting and conducting patient journey mapping research in healthcare: A scoping review

AIM

To identify how patient journey mapping is being undertaken and reported.

DESIGN

A scoping review of the literature was undertaken using JBI guidance.

DATA SOURCES

Databases were searched in July 2021 (16th-21st), including Ovid's Medline, Embase, Emcare and PsycINFO; Scopus; Web of Science Core Collection, the Directory of Open Access Journals; Informit and; ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

REVIEW METHODS

Eligible articles included peer-reviewed literature documenting journey mapping methodologies and studies conducted in healthcare services. Reviewers used Covidence to screen titles and abstracts of located sources, and to screen full-text articles. A table was used to extract data and synthesize results.

RESULTS

Eighty-one articles were included. An acceleration of patient journey mapping research was observed, with 76.5% (n = 62) of articles published since 2015. Diverse mapping approaches were identified. Reporting of studies was inconsistent and largely non-adherent with relevant, established reporting guidelines.

CONCLUSION

Patient journey mapping is a relatively novel approach for understanding patient experiences and is increasingly being adopted. There is variation in process details reported. Considerations for improving reporting standards are provided.

IMPACT

Patient journey mapping is a rapidly growing approach for better understanding how people enter, experience and exit health services. This type of methodology has significant potential to inform new, patient centred models of care and facilitate clinicians, patients and health professionals to better understand gaps and strategies in health services. The synthesised results of this review alert researchers to options available for journey mapping research and provide preliminary guidance for elevating reporting quality.

A nurse-led multidisciplinary team approach in urology-oncology: Addressing the new cancer strategy

Objectives:

The urology-oncology service in NHS Ayrshire and Arran (AA) is nurse-led, with a multidisciplinary team (MDT) process at its core. Here, we assess the efficacy of this nurse-led service against similar services and consider it in the context of the new NHS cancer strategy.

Materials and methods:

Audit data regarding the management of patients with urological malignancies published by the West of Scotland Cancer Network (WoSCAN) were compared against pre-determined quality performance indicators. These data were used to assess the efficacy of the NHS AA service against the other WoSCAN centres.

Results:

All parameters analysed were comparable, except for the following performance indicators for which the NHS AA data appeared to show significant improvement compared with the other WoSCAN centres: the number of patients with bladder cancer with recorded TNM clinical staging ( p = 0.012); the proportion of patients with prostate cancer who underwent transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy for histological diagnosis where a minimum of 10 cores are received by pathology ( p = 0.043); and the number of patients with metastatic prostate cancer who underwent immediate hormone therapy ( p = 0.031).

Conclusion:

Our analysis demonstrates that the NHS AA urology-oncology nurse-led MDT-based service is a highly efficient and well-functioning structure.