Clinical trial NCT00977678: Drop in Gastroscopy - Experience After 9 Months
Official title: Drop in Gastroscopy - Experience After 9 Months
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Esophageal Diseases
Peptic Ulcer
Stomach Diseases
Keywords: open access gastroscopy
Lead sponsor: Norwegian Department of Health and Social Affairs
Sponsor class: OTHER_GOV
First posted: 2009-09-16
Enrollment: 213
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Current patients referred to our outpatient gastroscopy clinic

Brief summary: The capacity for endoscopical procedures in the Norwegian health system is low in comparison to demands from patients and family practitioners.

The studies aim is to evaluate the acceptance of a new concept: an open access gastroscopy clinic where patients can attend without a preceding appointment.

The investigators wish to evaluate:

1. Patient´s satisfaction.
2. General practitioner´s satisfaction.
3. Acceptance by the staff of the clinic.

Detailed description: The fact that access to specialized norwegian health care is characterized by a mismatch between system´s capacity and patient´s and refering physician´s demands, leads to delay of diagnostic investigations such as for example gastroscopies. Patients referred to gastroscopies have to wait 4 to 12 weeks to get an appointment. Consequence might be a delay in diagnosing of significant diseases such as ulcers or even malignancies. In addition the general practitioner is frequently forced to start a therapy by suspicion, and the patient has in numerable cases to stay off work.

In September 2008, the investigators started an open-access gastroscopy outpatient clinic, which allows the family practitioners in a defined area of the Telemark county to refer their patients to a gastroscopy without a preceding appointment. Patients from the other parts of the county and those, who need special service as i.e. interpreter, endocarditis prophylaxis etc. are referred conventionally and need an appointment.

Aim of the study is to evaluate the acceptance of both forms of outpatient clinics by both patients and general practitioners. In addition to that, the investigators will evaluate the acceptance of the open access clinic by the staff. Of special concern is the fear, that easier access might lead to a number of unnecessary procedures.

All patients from open access clinic and from the conventional clinic are asked to fill in a questionaire without any kind of personal identifying data such as name, age, date of the procedure etc., but with questions about their satisfaction with the procedure, the time from their first contact with their family practitioner to the procedure, the information prior and after the procedure. They will be asked if they did consume drugs against "ulcer-disease" or not.

In addition the referring practitioners are asked to fill in a questionnaire about their acceptance of the open access clinic, and to give the investigators some ideas about advantages and disadvantages from their point of view.

The staff is asked to give their experience especially according to the not calculable number of patients that attend to the clinic each day.

If the present study shows high acceptance of the open-access-offer by patients and health workers, the plan is to extend it to other patient groups and to perform studies to investigate the effects on the grade of diseases at the time of diagnosis and possible consequences for treatment and health economy.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* all patients from 18 years of age.

Exclusion Criteria:

* age \< 18,
* inability or unwillingness to cooperate.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Patient´s satisfaction
timeFrame: Day of the Gastrocopy
Secondary outcomes:
measure: General practitioner´satisfaction
timeFrame: One month after enrollment of patients
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Skien
country: Norway
facility: Department of Gastroenterology
state: Telemark
Study officials:
affiliation: Telemark Hospital, Department of internal medicin, Skien, Norway
name: Gert Huppertz-Hauss, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: