2009
DOI: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02912.x
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Quick diagnosis units: a potentially useful alternative to conventional hospitalisation

Abstract: We describe a potentially cost‐saving, efficient alternative to hospitalising patients for diagnostic purposes: quick diagnosis units (QDUs) managed by internal medicine specialists. QDUs facilitate early diagnosis for patients with potentially serious disease, and avoid hospitalisations, hospital‐related morbidity and unnecessary health costs. To function well, QDUs require the patient's first visit to occur as soon as possible after referral; preferential patient access to diagnostic tests; and strict referr… Show more

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Cited by 38 publications
(77 citation statements)
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“…However, at this time in Europe there are no LC screening recommendations though The European Society of Radiology and the European Respiratory Society recommend screening within a clinical trial or in routine clinical practice at certified medical centres6. Instead, the strategy implemented in many European hospitals to achieve an early detection is the acceleration in the time to diagnosis in the so called Rapid Diagnostic Units for LC1011121516. Consequently, we intended to design a marker-based classification algorithm to be used in these Units, where the priority is to detect all LC cases (high sensitivity), in order to select those patients that should be immediately submitted to more invasive tests.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…However, at this time in Europe there are no LC screening recommendations though The European Society of Radiology and the European Respiratory Society recommend screening within a clinical trial or in routine clinical practice at certified medical centres6. Instead, the strategy implemented in many European hospitals to achieve an early detection is the acceleration in the time to diagnosis in the so called Rapid Diagnostic Units for LC1011121516. Consequently, we intended to design a marker-based classification algorithm to be used in these Units, where the priority is to detect all LC cases (high sensitivity), in order to select those patients that should be immediately submitted to more invasive tests.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Rapid or Quick Diagnostic Units (RDU/QDU) have been established within the public health system, with the main objective of accelerating the early diagnosis of potentially severe diseases such as cancer, avoiding hospitalisations for purely diagnostic purposes, minimizing hospital-related morbidity, reducing costs, and improving patient satisfaction1516. In Spain approximately 40–50% of the patients attending LC-RDUs display non-cancerous lung pathologies1112.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Whilst inappropriate use of hospital beds surpasses 20% through diverse specialties in Europe, admission for workup is one of the commonest reasons for inappropriate hospitalizations [28,29]. Deficiencies at several levels of the Spanish healthcare system prompted the creation of alternatives to hospitalization, exemplified by hospital-based outpatients’ quick diagnosis units (OQDUs) [23,25,3033]. Reported advantages over hospitalization are numerous: besides ensuring a time-to-diagnosis similar to the length-of-stay for the same evaluable condition, these clinics decrease emergency department referrals from primary healthcare centers and ease overcrowding, are associated with higher scores of patient reported satisfaction than inpatients, and are significantly cost-saving [31,3442].…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Studies show that anemia and cancer are the most-recorded diagnoses in Spanish QDU patients [4,5,27,28]. Likewise, the main reasons for hospitalization for diagnostic tests in Spain are severe anemia and suspected cancer-related unintentional weight loss [4-6,27-29]. Anemia, with or without symptoms, with hemoglobin levels below 8–9 g/l, has traditionally been a criterion for admission in our hospital [4,6].…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, the unit received patients from 12 PHC centers and the population attended is representative of that of other Spanish QDU, according to published reports [27-29,31,32]. In addition, although the appropriateness of PHC referrals to QDU and ED was objectively assessed using a scoring system, the possibility of some perception bias cannot be excluded.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%