Role for structured telephone clinics in paediatric gastroenterology: reflections, lessons and patient feedback

Abstract

BackgroundTelephone clinics have been established within our department to try and improve communication with families, limit waiting times and help face-to-face clinics run more efficiently. As part of the ongoing care needs for our patients and families it was felt important to determine if telephone clinics were meeting the needs of the young person and family as well as those of the health professional.ObjectiveTo assess the effects of a structured consultant delivered telephone clinic.MethodData were collected regarding patients who had a consultant telephone appointment between July 2016 and March 2017. Data collected include demographics and appointment reason. An evaluation questionnaire was sent to all parent/carer(s).Results25 clinics comprising 194 contacts, including 34 duplicate contacts. 120 questionnaires sent. 7/160 (4.3%) were new patients. The main contact reason was biopsy results after endoscopy (93/180; 52%). Failure to attend rate was significantly lower at 18/194 (9.2%) compared with failure to attend rate of 52/240 (21.6%) for a traditional clinic (p<0.001). 40/120 (33%) returned completed questionnaires, 25/40 (68.4%) reported the reason for appointment was test results. Travel time and school attendance were identified as main advantages. Mean parental rating score for the service was 8/10 with 21/40 (54%) scoring the service as 10/10.ConclusionThe initial results of this audit are promising. Structured telephone appointments have a key role in delivering patient care in paediatric gastroenterology and have benefits to health professional, parent/carer and patients. These clinics have now been widely adopted by all members of our department.

A telephone assessment and advice service within an ED Physiotherapy clinic: A single-site quality improvement cohort study

“…The main nding from this cohort study is that, compared with usual face-to-face care, the telephone assessment and advice service care provided faster access to ED physiotherapy without compromising on service user satisfaction. While no studies to date have assessed the impact of telehealth on wait times within an ED Physiotherapy clinic, these ndings are consistent with research conducted within other physiotherapy settings [12,37], along with other healthcare settings and patient populations [38][39][40][41].…”

A telephone assessment and advice service within an ED Physiotherapy clinic: A single-site quality improvement cohort study

“…The main nding from this cohort study is that, compared with usual face-to-face care, the telephone assessment and advice service care provided faster access to ED physiotherapy without compromising on service user satisfaction. While no studies to date have assessed the impact of telehealth on wait times within an ED Physiotherapy clinic, these ndings are consistent with research conducted within other physiotherapy settings [12,35], along with other healthcare settings and patient populations [36][37][38][39]. No signi cant reduction in the non-attendance rate was observed for this telehealth care pathway, although it is worth noting that the 10% non-attendance rate observed in the telephone assessment and advice group compares well with regards to national [40] and international gures [41,42].…”

Parents’ perception regarding paediatrics outpatients’ phone clinics

“…It was clear that the majority of participants were happy about the phone consultation clinics in general. Our survey results were in line with previously published reports [2]. Despite the overall good rating, we think that with more time allocation, the satisfaction rate would improve.…”