Impact of a new young adult inflammatory bowel disease transition clinic on patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes

Aim: The transition from paediatric to adult care for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with an increased risk of treatment non-adherence, hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) use. We established a new young adult IBD clinic (YAC) in Melbourne to capture this at-risk population. We aimed to assess patient satisfaction as well as clinical outcomes.

Methods: All patients who attended the YAC between its inception in November 2016 and November 2018 were recruited to our YAC group, 61 patients in total. A control group was selected from the pre-existing adult clinic (AC) at our service, 34 patients in total. IBD-related ED (IBD-ED) visits were collected for all patients. We compared IBD-ED visits in the 2 years before and after attending the clinic for the first time. Patient satisfaction was assessed using the IBD-Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire.

Results: There was an overall decrease in IBD-ED visits between the pre-clinic and post-clinic periods in both the YAC (42.9% reduction) and AC (69.2% reduction) (P < 0.001). Patient satisfaction was high amongst both services with YAC patients indicating higher satisfaction with communication (P = 0.015).

Conclusion: There was a reduction in IBD-ED visits in both the YAC and the AC, high patient satisfaction, and statistically higher satisfaction with communication in the YAC. We speculate the importance of a YAC is to capture those patients in the peri-transitional period at risk of being lost to follow-up or not previously referred for specialist care.