Urogynecology triage clinic: a model of healthcare delivery.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS

To establish whether a nurse-led urogynecology triage clinic (UTC) is effective in terms of patient journey (from primary referral to first hospital contact until discharge), diagnosis, management, and outcomes.

METHODS

The case notes of 300 patients attending the UTC in a university hospital between January 2006 and November 2007 were randomly selected for review.

RESULTS

The mean interval from referral to first visit improved from 15.6 weeks (range = 12-32 weeks) to 4.6 weeks (range = 1-11 weeks, SD = 1.97) after UTC. Compared to pre-UTC, the mean period from first visit to final outcome improved from 11 months (range = 3.0-23.0 months) to 8.8 weeks (range = <1-60 weeks, SD = 11.15). Fifty-nine percent were discharged from the UTC without being seen by a specialist.

CONCLUSIONS

By service redesigning, the UTC has reduced the number of clinic visits and patient journey time and has also shown that the majority of women with incontinence can be adequately managed by a specialist nurse.