Electronic Referral and Booking of Outpatient Day Case Surgery Compared With Traditional Referral Routines. (one-stop)

January 26, 2016 updated by: University Hospital of North Norway

Costs-effectiveness and Waiting Time for Direct Electronic Referral and Booking of Outpatient Day Case Surgery Compared With Traditional Referral Routines. A Randomised Controlled Trial

We want in this study to investigate the cost-effectiveness and waiting time of direct electronic referral and booking of outpatient surgery compared to the traditional patient pathway where the patient is seen at the outpatient clinic prior to surgery.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Waiting time from referral to day case outpatient surgery is unacceptable long. In Norway it is as much as 48 weeks for common conditions like gallstones, inguinal hernia and sinus pilonidalis. Electronic standardised referrals sent by the Norwegian Healthcare Network, and booking of surgery by the general practitioner might be a way to reduce the waiting time and increase the cost effectiveness of outpatient surgery.

The trial is designated as a randomized controlled trial were selected patients (inguinal hernia, gall stone disease and sinus pilonoidalis) referred to the university hospital, were either randomized to direct electronic referral and booking for outpatient surgery (one stop), or using the traditional patient pathway where all patients are seen at the outpatient clinic several weeks before surgery.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

120

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Norway
      • Tromsø, Norway
        • Norwegian Centre of Telemedicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • ADULT
  • OLDER_ADULT
  • CHILD

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients were eligible if they were diagnosed by their GP for an inguinal hernia, sinus pilonidalis or gallstone disease which require surgical treatment.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with medical conditions making them unfit for outpatient surgery admitted to the surgical department prior to surgery are not eligible

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: 1
The one stop strategy is a set of interventions directed at GPs referring to the University Hospital. The interventions include: Guidelines for referral, standardised electronic referrals, booking for outpatient surgery and a patient information form.
Behavioral: one stop (Electronic standardised referrals and appointment bookings)
The one stop strategy is a set of interventions directed at GPs referring to the University Hospital. The interventions include: Guidelines for referral, standardised electronic referrals, booking for outpatient surgery and a patient information form.
NO_INTERVENTION: 2
Patients in the control group are randomised to use the regular patient pathway prior to day case outpatient surgery. All these patients are referred to the surgical outpatient clinic. At the outpatient clinic patients are examined by a surgeon and indications for surgery is decided by the surgeon. If indicated, patients are then referred to outpatient surgery and the surgical procedure is performed several weeks after the examination.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
waiting time
Time Frame: one year
one year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
cost effectiveness
Time Frame: one year
one year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University Hospital of North Norway

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Rolv-Ole Lindsetmo, MD, PhD, University of Tromso
  • Study Chair: Roar Johnsen, MD, PhD, Prof., University of North Norway
  • Study Director: Knut M Augestad, MD, Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine and Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, University Hospital of North Norway, Norway

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2010

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

June 1, 2012

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 4, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 5, 2008

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

June 6, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

January 27, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2016

Last Verified

January 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • P REK NORD 122/2006

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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