NCT00692497

Electronic Referral and Booking of Outpatient Day Case Surgery Compared With Traditional Referral Routines.

Costs-effectiveness and Waiting Time for Direct Electronic Referral and Booking of Outpatient Day Case Surgery Compared With Traditional Referral Routines. A Randomised Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (actual)
• Sponsor: University Hospital of North Norway · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

We want in this study to investigate the cost-effectiveness and waiting time of direct electronic referral and booking of outpatient surgery compared to the traditional patient pathway where the patient is seen at the outpatient clinic prior to surgery.

Detailed description

Waiting time from referral to day case outpatient surgery is unacceptable long. In Norway it is as much as 48 weeks for common conditions like gallstones, inguinal hernia and sinus pilonidalis. Electronic standardised referrals sent by the Norwegian Healthcare Network, and booking of surgery by the general practitioner might be a way to reduce the waiting time and increase the cost effectiveness of outpatient surgery. The trial is designated as a randomized controlled trial were selected patients (inguinal hernia, gall stone disease and sinus pilonoidalis) referred to the university hospital, were either randomized to direct electronic referral and booking for outpatient surgery (one stop), or using the traditional patient pathway where all patients are seen at the outpatient clinic several weeks before surgery.

Conditions

• Referral and Consultation
• Telemedicine
• Surgery, Outpatient
• Surgery, Day
• Medical Records Systems, Computerized
• Health Services Research
• Health Care Surveys

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	one stop (Electronic standardised referrals and appointment bookings)	The one stop strategy is a set of interventions directed at GPs referring to the University Hospital. The interventions include: Guidelines for referral, standardised electronic referrals, booking for outpatient surgery and a patient information form.

Timeline

• Start date: 2010-10-01
• Primary completion: 2012-06-01
• Completion: 2012-12-01
• First posted: 2008-06-06
• Last updated: 2016-01-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Norway