A Delphi exercise with rheumatologists to identify consensus on essential components of a rheumatology service in district health boards of Aotearoa New Zealand.

AIM

To identify consensus of rheumatologists on components of best practice rheumatology service in district health boards (DHB) in Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ).

METHODS

A consensus survey of rheumatologists in AoNZ was informed by an initial survey inviting modifications to statements about best practice rheumatology from international literature and requested additional statements. The three-round consensus email exercise asked rheumatologists to indicate their level of agreement with each statement for a DHB serving a small or large population. Consensus for each statement was achieved when ≥80% of participants' votes were within a pre-determined category (essential, potentially desirable, to be avoided).

RESULTS

Ten rheumatologists reviewed the 19 initial statements with three additional statements offered-the consensus survey had 22 statements. Twenty-six rheumatologists responded in the first consensus round, with 21/26 (81%) responding in rounds two and three. After three rounds, 16 statements met consensus as essential for both small and large DHB rheumatology services. One statement met consensus as potentially desirable for a large rheumatology service. Five statements did not reach consensus.

CONCLUSIONS

The component statements identified by consensus can inform policy and implementation of rheumatology services in the AoNZ health system reforms and be used for benchmarking.