Abstract
Objective
To investigate whether a simple alternative (specific timely appointments for triage
[STAT]) to the more common approach of managing demand using a waitlist with a triage
system could reduce waiting time for a community rehabilitation program (CRP) without
adverse impacts on patient care.
Design
A prospective, controlled before-and-after trial. Preintervention and postintervention
data were collected for 6 months in 2 consecutive years. STAT was introduced at an
intervention site and compared with a control site using a triaged waitlist.
Setting
Two musculoskeletal CRP teams within a large metropolitan health service.
Participants
All patients referred to both sites during periods preintervention (n=483) and postintervention
(n=488).
Intervention
Under STAT, clinicians created a specified number of assessment times each week based
on average referral numbers, and patients were immediately allocated an appointment
on referral.
Main Outcome Measures
The primary outcome was the time from referral to first appointment; secondary outcomes
included program duration, quality-of-life scores (using the EuroQol EQ-5D), and unplanned
hospital admissions.
Results
Waiting time decreased from a mean of 17.5 days to 10.0 days (P<.01) at the intervention site, with no significant change at the control site. Intervention
site patients were over 3 times more likely to be seen within 7 days than control
site patients (odds ratio, 3.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.2–4.9). Secondary outcomes
did not differ significantly between groups.
Conclusions
A simple alternative to using a triaged waitlist to manage CRP referrals reduced waiting
time without adversely affecting care. Results were sustained over 6 months with no
additional resources.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
CI (confidence interval), CRP (community rehabilitation program), EQ-VAS (EuroQOL visual analog scale), IQR (interquartile range), OR (odds ratio), STAT (specific timely appointments for triage)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 27, 2012
Footnotes
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry No: ACTRN12611000943943.
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
