Aim The decision‐making process to defunction a pelvic colorectal anastomosis involves complex heuristics and is framed by surgeon personality factors. Risk taking propensity may be an important factor in these decisions and patient preferences have not been evaluated alongside surgeons and nurses. Methods A prospective cross‐sectional study involving a one‐off interview and questionnaire assessing how risk taking propensity affects nurse, surgeon and patient preferences for a temporary defunctioning ileostomy (TDI) was performed. The risk taking index (RTI) was employed to evaluate risk taking propensity and the validated prospective measures of preference instruments to evaluate preferences for stoma avoidance in several scenarios by asking the individual to consider trading or gambling years of remaining life expectancy. Results One hundred and fifty participants met the inclusion criteria, which included 30 (20.0%) surgical nurses, 20 (13.3%) colorectal surgeons and 100 (66.7%) patients. Surgeons had a significantly higher RTI (mean ± SD: 26.8 ± 6.7) than patients (mean ± SD: 20.0 ± 9.8) and nurses (mean ± SD: 23.0 ± 6.6) p = 0.002. Surgeons would consider that it would be in a patient's best interest to have a TDI at an AL rate of 15% or greater, whereas nurses and patients would do so at 28% and 25%, respectively (p = 0.007). Conclusion Surgeons were shown to have a higher risk taking propensity than patients and nurses but a significantly lower threshold of AL where they would consider a TDI is in the best interest of the patient.

Background: The COVID-19 virtual ward was created to provide care for people at home with COVID-19. Only a small proportion required hospital admission during their care. Given this was a new model of care, little was known about the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients requiring admission to hospital from the virtual ward platform. Aim: A retrospective observational study with the aim to characterise hospital admission volume, patient epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcome form a virtual ward in the setting of an omicron BA.1 and BA.2 outbreak. Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed for all virtual ward patients admitted from 1st January 2022 to 25th March 2022. Patients had to be at least 16 years old to be included. Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data was reviewed on all patients who required admission to hospital. This was analysed to describe this patient cohort. Results: A total of 7021 patients were cared for on the virtual ward over the study period with 473 referred to hospital for assessment. Twenty-six (0.4%) patients were admitted to hospital during their care on the ward. Twenty-two (84.6%) admissions were COVID-19 related. Fifty three percent of the hospitalised patients were fully vaccinated, and 11 had received prior therapeutics for COVID-19 in the community. There was one ICU admission, and one in-hospital mortality. Shortness of breath was the most common reason for escalation to hospital. Chest pain was the second most common reason and the most common diagnosis after investigation was non-cardiac chest pain that spontaneously resolved. Conclusions: Few patients required admission from the virtual ward in the setting of the omicron variant (BA.1, BA.2) as a direct result of COVID-19 disease and virtual ward care. Shortness of breath and chest pain were the most common symptoms driving further clinical care.

Background: The COVID-19 virtual ward was created to provide care for people at home with COVID-19. Given this was a new model of care, little was known about the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients requiring admission to hospital from the virtual ward platform.The aims were to characterise hospital admission volume, patient epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and outcome from a virtual ward in the setting of an Omicron (BA.1, BA.2) outbreak.Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed for all virtual ward patients admitted from 1st January 2022 to 25th March 2022 (over 16 years old).Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data was reviewed on all patients who required hospital admission.Results: A total of 7021 patients were cared for on the virtual ward over the study period with 473 referred to hospital for assessment. Twenty-six (0.4%) patients were admitted to hospital during their care on the ward. Twenty-two (84.6%) admissions were COVID-19 related. Fifty three percent of the hospitalised patients were fully vaccinated and 11 had received prior therapeutics for COVID-19. Shortness of breath was the most common reason for escalation to hospital. Chest pain was the second most common reason and the most common diagnosis after investigation was non-cardiac chest pain.Conclusions: Few patients required admission from the virtual ward in the setting of the Omicron variant (BA.1, BA.2) as a direct result of COVID-19 disease and virtual ward care. Shortness of breath and chest pain were the most common symptoms driving further clinical care.