Red eyes and red-flags: improving ophthalmic assessment and referral in primary care
| Autor: | Charis Lois, Caroline L. S. Kilduff |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
Pediatrics
medicine.medical_specialty Referral Photophobia BMJ Quality Improvement Programme business.industry Low Confidence Psychological intervention MEDLINE Nice General Medicine Primary care 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine 030221 ophthalmology & optometry medicine Physical therapy 030212 general & internal medicine Red eye medicine.symptom business computer computer.programming_language |
| Zdroj: | BMJ Quality Improvement Reports |
| ISSN: | 2050-1315 |
| Popis: | Up to five percent of primary care consultations are eye-related, yet 96% of General Practitioners (GPs) do not undergo postgraduate ophthalmology training. Most do not feel assured performing eye assessments. Some red eye conditions can become sight threatening, and often exhibit red-flag features. These features include moderate pain, photophobia, reduced visual acuity (VA), eye-trauma, or unilateral marked redness. The aim of this project was to improve primary care assessment and referral of patients presenting with red-flag features based on the NICE 'Red Eye' Clinical Knowledge Summary recommendations. Data was collected retrospectively from 139 red eye consultations. A practice meeting highlighted poor awareness of red-flag features, low confidence levels in eye assessments, and time-constraints during appointments. Interventions were based on feedback from staff. These included a primary care teaching session on red-flag features, a VA measurement tutorial, and provision of a red eye toolkit, including VA equipment, to each consultation room. At baseline, each patient had on average 0.9 red-flag features assessed. Only 36.0% (9/25) of patients with red-flag features were appropriately referred to same-day ophthalmology services. Following two improvement cycles, a significant improvement was seen in almost every parameter. On average, each patient had 2.7 red-flag features assessed (vs 0.9, p |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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