Orthopaedic Posters
AB187. SOH22ABS036. The Outreach Virtual Fracture Clinic—a pilot report of the initial nine months
Conor Medlar1, Andrew Hughes1, Marian Hayden2, Eimear Lavelle3, Gabrielle Dunne3, Karina Batt4, Maria Gyves5, Jan Hailey Reyes3, Brendan O’Daly1, John Quinlan1
1Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland;
2Orthopaedic Outpatient Department, Naas General Hospital, Kildare, Ireland;
3Emergency Department, Naas General Hospital, Kildare, Ireland;
4Department of Physiotherapy, Naas General Hospital, Naas, Kildare, Ireland;
5Orthopaedic Outpatient Department, Naas General Hospital, Kildare, Ireland
Background: The virtual fracture clinic (VFC) enables the safe, cost-effective delivery of high-quality patient-centred fracture care, whilst reducing hospital footfall. Within our institution, an Outreach VFC was launched, accepting a pre-defined range of trauma referrals from the outreach centre’s emergency department (ED). We aimed to outline the workings of this Outreach VFC following its establishment.
Methods: The initial nine months’ worth of cases referred to the Outreach VFC were assessed. The injury pattern, time to review, treatment plan and discharge destination of each referred patient was examined.
Results: A total of 822 patients were referred to the Outreach VFC during its initial nine months in operation. Owing to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related alterations in the patient pathway, 58.1% of patients were referred on to fracture clinic/ED, with 34.4% of patients being referred for physiotherapy input. A total of 44.9% of patients were reviewed at the Outreach VFC within 72 hours of ED presentation, with 88.6% of patients reviewed within 7 days. The Outreach VFC pilot initiative saved the Dublin Midlands Hospitals Group approximately €83,022 over nine months.
Conclusions: The Outreach VFC model represents a novel approach to trauma care delivery with advantages for patient and hospital alike. Rural communities serve to benefit from its future implementation and the remote management of orthopaedic trauma. The Outreach VFC model provides a means of delivering safe and timely orthopaedic care whilst maintaining high levels of patient satisfaction.
Keywords: Virtual fracture clinic (VFC); outreach; remote; telemedicine; healthcare value
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
doi: 10.21037/map-22-ab187
Cite this abstract as: Medlar C, Hughes A, Hayden M, Lavelle E, Dunne G, Batt K, Gyves M, Reyes JH, O’Daly B, Quinlan J. AB187. SOH22ABS036. The Outreach Virtual Fracture Clinic—a pilot report of the initial nine months. Mesentery Peritoneum 2022;6:AB187.
