Survey for using the new card to support balancing treatment and work in hospitals

Abstract

Objective: In order to promote support balancing treatment and work in hospitals, We investigated the points to keep in mind when patients and attending's physicians use the new card to support for balancing treatment and work (the support card) announced by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in March of 2024, among the balance support coordinators (coordinators) and the physicians who provide support for balancing treatment and work, at Rosai hospitals.

Methods: The questionnaire survey was conducted in which the coordinators and the physicians responded with reference to the medical records of patients who were supported for balancing treatment and work. Twenty-two cases in which initial medical treatment and work balance support guidance fee were calculated between April 2020 and September 2023 at three Rosai hospitals were used as reference cases, and nine coordinators and six physicians who supported these cases were surveyed. The content of the survey was to determine whether it would be easy and appropriate to describe the patient's work information on the support card by self and to fill out the attending physician's opinions in the support card based on the patient's work information. This study was conducted with the approval of the Headquarters Medical Research Ethics Review Committee, the Japan Organization for Occupational Health and Safety (2024-36).

Results: In the reference cases, there were 12 cases of cancer and 10 cases of other diseases, 9 cases of age under 40s, 7 cases of 50s, and 5 cases of 60s, and 11 cases of manual workers and 11 cases of clerical work.

In a survey of coordinators, in 80% of cases, they responded that it was possible to fill patients' work information in the support card and obtain the information necessary to prepare a physician's opinion from it with some guidance materials or support from co-medical staff (i.e. coordinators). In a survey of physicians, they said that, in more than 60% of cases, the use of the support cards can be expected to shorten the time required to interview patients about their work status and prepare their doctor's opinions. In addition, in 80% of cases, the opinions could be described to the same extent as before, or to a degree that was not inferior to the past.

In addition, there were expectations that the use of the support cards would promote support for balancing treatment and work, but both coordinators and physicians pointed out that it was important to develop some guidance materials and operational systems for using the support cards at medical institutions.

Discussion: In this study, neither the coordinator who evaluated the patient's entry column on the support card nor the physician who evaluated the physician's entry column felt that there was a major problem in using the support card after the appropriate system was in place and dissemination of information about the new support card.