Towards the implementation of clinical quality management at the national level: description of current types of rehabilitation services for spinal cord injury/disorder in Switzerland using an interdisciplinary consensus process

BACKGROUND: Aligned with WHO’s Global Disability Action Plan 2014-2021, the Section and Board of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS-PRM) set up a plan to strengthen rehabilitation and support International Classification for Functioning, Disability and Health-based clinical quality management. Accordingly, the UEMS-PRM developed the European Framework of Rehabilitation Service Types (“European Framework”). The specifications of these service types may differ across countries and for specific application areas.AIM: The objective of this paper is to report on the development of a framework of rehabilitation service types for spinal cord injury/disorder (SCI/D) in Switzerland (“SCI/D Framework”).DESIGN: Quality improvement in healthcare.SETTING: The setting of this study was in Switzerland.POPULATION: Representatives of medical societies.METHODS: A multistage consensus process was conducted and involved representatives of national medical and rehabilitation societies recruited based on a situational analysis of existing national quality management documents. The process comprised the development of an initial framework based on the European Framework, a survey, a face-to-face consensus meeting, and a confirmatory feedback round on the version of the SCI/D Framework resulting from the meeting.RESULTS: Representatives of 12 national medical societies, one political body in rehabilitation, one national interprofessional rehabilitation society, the Swiss representative of two international rehabilitation societies and heads of four SCI/D specialized centers participated in the multistage consensus process. After the modifications based on the results of the survey, the consensus meeting and confirmatory feedback round were made, the resulting SCI/D Framework version encompassed 19 rehabilitation service types, structured in nine different clusters, of which six were subdivided into general, other specific or SCI/D-specific rehabilitation service types.CONCLUSIONS: Developing the SCI/D Framework for Switzerland was a further step toward refining existing quality criteria and national quality standards for rehabilitation and toward scaling up SCI/D rehabilitation in Switzerland.CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: The SCI/D Framework can support national efforts to address any gaps in health care provision and guide an optimal response to meet the rehabilitation needs of persons with SCI/D in Switzerland. Furthermore, the development of the SCI/D Framework illustrates an outline that can be used to develop a similar framework for other health conditions and for other countries to follow in adapting the European Framework for their own country context.