AB161. SOH24AB_081. Virtual injection follow-up clinics can lead to a reduction in elective waiting lists times

Background: Elective orthopaedic clinics are getting busier and waiting lists for these appointments are getting longer. In order to address this issue, a nation’s health service needs to find novel methods to achieve more clinic appointments with the limited resources available. This study was performed to evaluate whether patients who underwent elective joint injections can have their follow up clinic appointments over the phone rather than face-to-face without a detrimental change in the outcomes of the follow up consultation.

Methods: Patients who underwent elective joint injections in Tallaght University Hospital were followed up with a telephone consultation rather than a face-to-face consultation. Outcomes of the telephone consultation were recorded.

Results: To date, 34 patients have been called by the telephone clinic following their elective joint injections. Results of these telephone consultations were: 4 patients uncontactable (2 were recontacted at a later telephone clinic, resulting in a total of 36 calls to date), 12 patients booked for face-to-face consultation, 13 patients to be followed up with another telephone consultation, 2 patients discharged, and 5 patients booked for another injection.

Conclusions: Telephone clinics for patients who underwent elective joint injection are satisfactory in the majority of cases compared to face-to-face clinic appointments, with only 35% of patients (12/34) to date being booked for a face-to-face appointment as a result of their telephone consultation.

Keywords: Clinic appointment efficiency; elective orthopaedics; joint injection; osteoarthritis; telephone clinic