Abstract
Purpose :
Currently, there is no systematic approach for providers to assess referral patients in the Ophthalmology Clinic at Metropolitan Hospital, a large community center in East Harlem. As a result, patients endure long wait times and poor follow-up. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current triage method for walk-in referrals and create an evidence-based questionnaire to stratify these patients based on symptom severity. We predict that implementing an evidence-based questionnaire will decrease patient wait times and improve patient outcomes, which will be assessed throughout the study with patient satisfaction surveys.
Methods :
Walk-in referral patients will be asked to voluntarily fill out a 15-item questionnaire upon check-in. Questions include recent eye surgery, severity of vision loss, and onset of vision changes. We plan to enroll 100 walk-in referral patients or 2 months of referral patients, whichever deadline may come first. We will then preform an analysis of the survey responses and patient satisfaction surveys. The questions within the questionnaire will be assessed to determine which correlate most strongly with urgent referral visits.
Results :
Upon assessment of the questionnaire, we predict that symptom onset, severity of symptoms, and progression of symptoms will correlate strongly with urgency of a referral visit. Based on these results, an evidence-based screening questionnaire will be implemented to decrease wait times for walk-in referral patients and improve patient satisfaction.
Conclusions :
We believe that the urgency of a referral visit will be best predicted by acuity of symptom onset, severity of symptoms, and progression of symptoms. Furthermore, use of these questions as part of a screening questionnaire will decrease the time a walk-in referral patient has to wait prior to being seen by a provider. Additionally it will improve patient satisfaction. Further studies may include assessing patient follow-up in clinic as a result of decreased wait times and better patient satisfaction.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.