Bhavanasi Bhaskar Amarnath, Kulkarni Shrikant
Department of Trauma & Orthopaedics, Sandwell General Hospital, West Bromwich, West Midlands, United Kingdom.
Foot Ankle Orthop. 2024 Dec 18;9(4):24730114241305603. doi: 10.1177/24730114241305603. eCollection 2024 Oct.
The National Health Service (NHS) outpatient waiting list is growing, affecting specialties like foot and ankle. Delays are due to increasing demand, limited resources, and administrative inefficiencies. Virtual clinics are being explored to reduce physical clinic burdens and provide timely care. This study investigates the effectiveness of virtual clinics in reducing prolonged waiting times in the foot and ankle specialty. Emissions from personal vehicles are a primary driver of climate change, which is a little recognized benefit of virtual clinics.
We analyzed outcomes from a virtual elective foot and ankle clinic, overseen by a specialist consultant, for new elective referrals over 4 months. Data for 175 patients were collected from Lorenzo, our electronic health records system. We also assessed the success rate of virtual consultations in terms of accurate diagnoses and effective treatment plans. Measured distance to the hospital based was on patients' residential address.
The virtual clinic effectively managed patients. Of the 175 patients, 48.6% completed treatment, and were discharged, and 53.7% were managed without face-to-face consultations. In addition, 66.3% did not need in-person visits; this includes patients treated and discharged and who were referred for investigations. In this clinic, avoiding 1 visit to the hospital by 116 patients saved travel of 1040 miles.
The widespread adoption of virtual clinics can provide a convenient and cost-effective health care solution for patients and also potentially help reduce carbon emissions contributing to control global warming.
Level IV, retrospective case series.
国民医疗服务体系（NHS）的门诊候诊名单不断增加，影响到了足踝等专科。延误是由于需求增加、资源有限和行政效率低下所致。人们正在探索虚拟诊所，以减轻实体诊所的负担并提供及时的护理。本研究调查了虚拟诊所在减少足踝专科长期候诊时间方面的有效性。个人车辆排放是气候变化的主要驱动因素，而这是虚拟诊所鲜为人知的一个好处。
我们分析了一个由专科顾问监督的虚拟足踝择期诊所4个月内新择期转诊患者的治疗结果。从我们的电子健康记录系统洛伦佐中收集了175名患者的数据。我们还根据准确诊断和有效治疗方案评估了虚拟会诊的成功率。根据患者的居住地址测量到医院的距离。
虚拟诊所有效地管理了患者。在175名患者中，48.6%完成治疗并出院，53.7%在无需面对面会诊的情况下得到了管理。此外，66.3%的患者无需亲自就诊；这包括已接受治疗并出院以及被转诊进行检查的患者。在该诊所，116名患者避免了一次到医院就诊，节省了1040英里的行程。
虚拟诊所的广泛采用可以为患者提供便捷且具成本效益的医疗保健解决方案，还可能有助于减少碳排放，从而有助于控制全球变暖。
四级，回顾性病例系列。
