Dataset Information
Implementation of web-based hospital specialist consultations to improve quality and expediency of general practitioners' care: a feasibility study.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Rising healthcare costs due to unnecessary referrals to secondary healthcare services underscore the need for optimizing current referral procedures. This study investigates whether the use of web-based consultation (WBC) in general practice is a feasible alternative to decrease referrals.Methods
Patients with lumbosacral radicular syndrome, knee complaints, or thyroid dysfunction, who visited the general practitioner (GP) between May 2015 and December 2016 were included for a WBC. We determined whether the GP would refer a patient to an outpatient clinic in the absence of a WBC and then compared this decision with the referral advice from a specialist. We further assessed the user-friendliness of the WBC service based on average recorded user time and feedback from the GPs.Results
Seventy eligible WBCs submitted by GPs were analyzed. Our data showed a 46% absolute reduction in in-persons referrals in our study population. These findings confirmed the feasibility of using WBC. The median time spent to submit a WBC was five and 10 min for GPs and specialists respectively. On average, the WBC service saved €286 per WBC. The results of a questionnaire showed that GPs found WBC to be a user-friendly option which could help reduce the number of in-person referrals.Conclusion
We demonstrated that WBC is not only feasible but has the potential to reduce nearly half of all in-person referrals to outpatient clinics. WBC decreased healthcare expenses and proved to be a user-friendly and safe alternative to the standard referral process. WBC may potentially have a profound impact on healthcare expenditure if applied in a wider medical setting. For follow-up research, we recommend including a control group for comparative analyses.
SUBMITTER: van der Velden T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6540440 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Implementation of web-based hospital specialist consultations to improve quality and expediency of general practitioners' care: a feasibility study.
BMC family practice 20190529 1
<h4>Background</h4>Rising healthcare costs due to unnecessary referrals to secondary healthcare services underscore the need for optimizing current referral procedures. This study investigates whether the use of web-based consultation (WBC) in general practice is a feasible alternative to decrease referrals.<h4>Methods</h4>Patients with lumbosacral radicular syndrome, knee complaints, or thyroid dysfunction, who visited the general practitioner (GP) between May 2015 and December 2016 were includ ...[more]