Impact of single multidisciplinary triage system and straight to test process evaluation at surrey integrated musculoskeletal services
Authors: Nalajala Narender , Panchal Mitesh , Gotting Laura 
Published: April 2023

Purpose

Orthopaedics, rheumatology, pain management, specialist radiology and therapy services were brought under one umbrella to form Northwest Surrey integrated musculoskeletal (IMSK) services and introduced advance clinical practice, a multi-disciplinary team triage with a formalised straight to test (STT) process defined in 2018. Historically, prior to these services' integration, there were a primary and second care triage systems within individual specialities. The aim of this service evaluation is to assess the impact of a single IMSK multidisciplinary triage (MDT) system and the efficacy of STT from triage, which allows patients to be sent for diagnostics based on the cluster of symptoms and past medical history in order to achieve early identification of serious pathologies. This is a complex adaptive system with pathways spanning into the core areas of orthopaedics, rheumatology, therapies, pain management services, radiology and some less frequent specialities such as neurology, oncology, vascular and gynaecology. One of the objectives of this study was to identify how many referrals were triaged to consultants, Advance practice and therapies. In addition, the authors wanted to highlight the proportion of referrals that were sent straight to test from triage and the percentage of these that had sinister pathology identified. This information would then be compared against existing red flag literature to identify common themes. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were extracted retrospectively from a hospital database from January to December 2019 for all the adult musculoskeletal service referrals. The data collected were analysed on a Microsoft Excel sheet with information including date of triage, hospital number, ordering clinician, body part, type of diagnostic, indications for scanning, outcome for STT, serious pathology findings (named code 5 within our trust) and outcome of appointment.

Findings

A total of 47,039 referrals were received into the IMSK service. Of these referrals 19,967 were directly referred to therapies, with 27,072 referrals received into the IMSK service MDT process. Within triage, 718 patients were directed to STT to rule out serious pathology. A total of 28 patients (3.9%) had sinister pathology identified on their investigation. A total of 46% of patients were discharged from their first consultation following STT. Overall, 50% of the total number of referrals into the IMSK service was seen by advanced practitioners with 16% of patients directed to consultants with pre-consultation diagnostic work up.

Originality/value

This service evaluation highlights that STT allows early access to diagnostics, resulting in quicker access to identification of sinister pathology. A one stop MDT system has been shown to be effective in guiding the referral to the right place with increased referrals into allied health advance practice clinics and access to therapies directly. It has resulted in a reduction of unwarranted referrals to consultant care, duplication of investigations and identified patients on multiple pathways.