Allied health primary contact services: results of a 2-year follow-up study of clinical effectiveness, safety, wait times and impact on medical specialist out-patient waitlists.

ConclusionsAllied health primary contact services provide safe, effective and timely care. The impact on medical specialist out-patient waitlists varied depending on service model and pathway characteristics.What is known about this topic?Most studies of allied health primary contact services have focused on the management of patients on orthopaedic specialist out-patient waitlists by a physiotherapist. These studies of either individual services or groups of services with the same model cite benefits, including reduced waiting times, high levels of patient and referrer satisfaction, improved conversion to surgery, cost-effectiveness and more effective utilisation of medical specialists.What does this paper add?This paper highlights that, collectively, allied health primary contact services are safe, effective and provide timely care. The proportion of patients independently managed and removed from various medical specialist out-patient waitlists and the services involved are reported, demonstrating the variety of service models. This study reports outcomes for primary contact services for which there is a dearth of published literature, including dietician services for patients on gastroenterology waitlists, speech pathology and audiology services for patients on ear, nose and throat waitlists, occupational therapy hand services for patients on orthopaedic waitlists and physiotherapy led pelvic-health services for patients on gynaecology waitlists. Possibilities for efficie...

Source: Australian Health Review - December 4, 2020 Category: Hospital Management Authors: Stute M, Moretto N, Waters R, Raymer M, Sam S, Bhagwat M, Banks M, Comans T, Buttrum P Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research