Removing hospital-based triage from suspected colorectal cancer pathways: the impact and learning from a primary care-led electronic straight-to-test pathway
Autor: | Anne Pullyblank, Philippa Orchard, Nitin Arvind, James Kynaston, Eric Loveday, Ann Lyons, Alison Wint |
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Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
Quality management
Referral Colorectal cancer Nice Primary care 030230 surgery State Medicine 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Humans Medicine Referral and Consultation computer.programming_language Primary Health Care business.industry Health Policy Cancer medicine.disease Triage Hospitals Test (assessment) 030220 oncology & carcinogenesis Medical emergency Electronics Colorectal Neoplasms business computer |
Zdroj: | BMJ Quality & Safety. 30:467-474 |
ISSN: | 2044-5423 2044-5415 |
DOI: | 10.1136/bmjqs-2019-009975 |
Popis: | BackgroundThe 2-week wait referral pathway for suspected colorectal cancer was introduced in England to improve time from referral from a general practitioner (GP) to diagnosis and treatment. Patients are required to be seen by a hospital clinician within 2 weeks if their symptoms meet the criteria set by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and to start cancer treatment within 62 days. To achieve this, many hospitals have introduced a straight-to-test (STT) strategy requiring hospital-based triage of referrals. We describe the impact and learning from a new pathway which has removed triage and moved the process of requesting tests from hospital to GPs in primary care.MethodAn electronic STT pathway was introduced allowing GPs to book tests supported by a decision aid based on NICE guidance eliminating the need for a standard referral form or triage process. The hospital identified referrals as being on a cancer pathway and dealt with all ongoing management. Routinely collected cancer data were used to identify time to cancer diagnosis compared with national dataResults11357 patients were referred via the new pathway over 3 years. Time from referral to diagnosis reduced from 39 to 21 days and led to a dramatic improvement in patients starting treatment within 62 days. Challenges included adapting to a change in referral criteria and developing a robust hospital system to monitor the pathway.ConclusionWe have changed the way patients with suspected colorectal cancer are managed within the National Health Service by giving GPs the ability to order tests electronically within a monitored cancer pathway halving time from referral to diagnosis |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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