Objective: to check the impact of a series of organisational measures covering the communication between the physician and nurse and the nursing tasks carried out at the consultation office on the quality of nursing care.
Material and method: a “before and after” interventional study at the Campamento Healthcare Centre (Madrid) on a population sample comprising 1.400 adults and 200 children. The intervention consisted of a series of organisational measures. The indicators used to determine the impact of the organisational measures taken included: patient frequentation to the nursing office, meaning the frequency with which a patient makes use of healthcare services (walk ins/consultation upon demand and by appointment); fulfilment of portfolio services; development of new programmes; subjective assessment of users and professionals involved in the intervention and frequentation to a medical office (walk ins and appointment).
Results: after the intervention, appointments for chronic patients dropped from 8 to 4 people. Consultation upon demand appointments (spontaneous and referred) increased by 41%, pre-arranged appointments decreased by 6,7% and there was no delay to make an appointment with the nurse. Improved results were attained in the portfolio of services in the sample studied as compared to the rest of the registered patients. Nursing activities were extended and the level of professional and user satisfaction increased.
Conclusions: rationalisation of the frequency of follow up visits of chronic patients and an adequate organisation of the nursing load by applying quality criteria allows for longer nursing time, higher efficiency and improved relationship among team members.