Clinical trial NCT00692497: Electronic Referral and Booking of Outpatient Day Case Surgery Compared With Traditional Referral Routines.
Official title: 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
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Referral and Consultation
Telemedicine
Surgery, Outpatient
Surgery, Day
Medical Records Systems, Computerized
Health Services Research
Health Care Surveys
Keywords: One-Stop
Public Health Research
Delivery of Health Care/*standards
Evaluation Studies
Referral
Surgery, Outpatient
Surgery, Day
Telemedicine
Lead sponsor: University Hospital of North Norway
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2008-06-06
Enrollment: 120
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief 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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients were eligible if they were diagnosed by their GP for an inguinal hernia, sinus pilonidalis or gallstone disease which require surgical treatment.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients with medical conditions making them unfit for outpatient surgery admitted to the surgical department prior to surgery are not eligible

Primary outcomes:
measure: waiting time
timeFrame: one year
Secondary outcomes:
measure: cost effectiveness
timeFrame: one year
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Tromsø
country: Norway
facility: Norwegian Centre of Telemedicine
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Tromso
name: Rolv-Ole Lindsetmo, MD, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of North Norway
name: Roar Johnsen, MD, PhD, Prof.
role: STUDY_CHAIR
affiliation: Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine and Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, University Hospital of North Norway, Norway
name: Knut M Augestad, MD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References:
citation: Augestad KM, Revhaug A, Vonen B, Johnsen R, Lindsetmo RO. The one-stop trial: does electronic referral and booking by the general practitioner (GPs) to outpatient day case surgery reduce waiting time and costs? A randomized controlled trial protocol. BMC Surg. 2008 Aug 11;8:14. doi: 10.1186/1471-2482-8-14.