Reducing inappropriate ENT referrals

Reducing inappropriate ENT referrals.

Reducing inappropriate referrals to secondary care: our experiences with the ENT Emergency clinic.

INTRODUCTION In the current financial climate faced by the NHS, it is important that we reduce the amount of inappropriate referrals made to secondary care specialties. ENT Emergency Clinics are one-stop clinics provided by many UK ENT departments to allow more rapid access to ENT services from primary care. However, many referrals to these clinics were considered to be inappropriate, overloadi...

Reducing inappropriate A&E attendances.

over 10 years but were not performing well on ‘access’ because of a high number of patients who did not attend (DNA). We often had over 100 DNAs per month so many appointments were being wasted. I noticed that another local practice which permitted advance booking only 2 days ahead scored better in the ‘access’ survey than our practice. Another local practice was piloting a same day booking sys...

Reducing inappropriate polypharmacy: the process of deprescribing.

Inappropriate polypharmacy, especially in older people, imposes a substantial burden of adverse drug events, ill health, disability, hospitalization, and even death. The single most important predictor of inappropriate prescribing and risk of adverse drug events in older patients is the number of prescribed drugs. Deprescribing is the process of tapering or stopping drugs, aimed at minimizing p...

An audit of ENT referrals assessing training needs for general practice trainees.

Over 500 ENT diagnoses made by general practitioners when referring patients to one ENT department were examined and compared with the diagnoses by the specialist department. A broad grouping of the categories of referral was made and topics highlighted which seemed particularly appropriate for further postgraduate training for general practitioners.We believe the amount of postgraduate trainin...