A Completed-cycle Local Audit of Patient Load in the SHO-led ENT Casualty Clinic

October 2, 2018 updated by: Sadik Quoraishi, National Health Service, United Kingdom
ENT UK guidelines recommend booking no more than 6 patients during each 4-hour clinic session. Retrospectively, the investigators counted patients booked for each clinic on ourbooking system. The second cycle showed improved compliance with guidelines.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background The investigators' centre runs a regular ENT casualty clinic, run by an SHO, for rapid assessment and treatment of simple, acute ENT cases. ENT UK guidelines from 2017 recommend that no more than 6 patients be booked for an SHO to see during a 4-hour clinic session. This study aims to assess whether this centre meets those guidelines.

Method Data was retrospectively collected from MedWay, the centre's networked booking system. The number of patients booked for each ENT casualty clinic was counted over a period of two months. This was repeated two months after intervention to close the loop.

Result In the first cycle, 2 out of 22 clinics (9%) were found to be compliant with guidelines. Our intervention was to inform clinic booking staff of the guidelines. In the second cycle, 20 of 24 clinics were compliant (83%).

Discussion Anecdotally, prior to intervention, SHOs would often struggle to keep up with the casualty clinic caseload, and clinics would overrun. Clinic booking staff were not previously aware of ENT UK guidelines, and the number of clinic slots was set arbitrarily. This was easily and effectively resolved by educating staff. It can be learned that de facto management practice is not always based on guidelines or evidence; and highlights the importance of auditing all aspects of how organisations are run. Further quality improvement studies should focus on what happens to patients who can no longer be fit into existing casualty clinics.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

333

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

  • United Kingdom
      • Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
        • Royal Stoke University Hospital

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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

N/A

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All patients booked into SHO-led ENT casualty clinics

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All ENT casualty clinics with patients booked within the study time period

Exclusion Criteria:

  • All clinics that were not staffed by an SHO

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

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Cycle 1
Counted number of patients booked into clinic. No individual patient data collected.
Cycle 2
Counted number of patients booked into clinic. No individual patient data collected.
Other: Clerical policy
Clerical policy introduction

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Retrospectively counted patients booked
Time Frame: 2 months
Retrospectively counted patients booked
2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

National Health Service, United Kingdom

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Sadik Quoraishi, National Health Service, United Kingdom

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 (Actual)

November 1, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 14, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

March 14, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 1, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 2, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

October 4, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 4, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 2, 2018

Last Verified

October 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • w106k6eMBibC

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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