P184 Including Work Participation In Dutch Multidisciplinairy Guidelines - An Overview

Background In 2006 an innovative programme for the development of multidisciplinary guidelines (KKCZ) was started in The Netherlands. The KKCZ programme aimed to develop multidisciplinary guidelines, to facilitate collaboration between professional groups, to enhance patient participation, and to avoid duplication of efforts on a national level. Context One of the innovative aspects of the KKCZ-programme was to stimulate guideline developers to include (work) participation in the guidelines. Therefore The Netherlands Society of Occupational Medicine (NVAB) has developed a “Blueprint Participation in Guidelines” to facilitate guideline developers to include work participation in KKCZ-guidelines. Description The KKCZ-programme has led to 53 multidisciplinary guidelines. In an evaluation study the contents of eight KKCZ-guidelines and two other multidisciplinary guidelines was assessed. This was accomplished by first developing a list of process indicators describing essential steps of the Blueprint. Second, the use of the Blueprint was evaluated using this list. All eight KKCZ-guidelines were developed using the Blueprint. Because process indicators do not give information on the actual contents of a guideline, a web based survey was held among Dutch occupational physicians. 253 occupational physicians reported on the inclusion of work participation in the guidelines. The majority found that work participation was included in these guidelines. However, they also found that many of the key recommendations in the guidelines were difficult to implement. Lessons The use of a Blueprint for guideline developers has stimulated the inclusion of work participation in multidisciplinary guidelines. However, the use of this Blueprint is no guarantee that key recommendations on work participation are implemented in daily practice.