title: Special program to reduce cardiology consultation waiting lists: report on an innovatory experience.
abstract: The problem of waiting lists has been widely debated in the Portuguese society. In this paper, the authors report the first results of a prioritization approach, started in March 2000. In this program cardiologists and general practitioners work in close proximity, coordinating efforts in order to improve the establishment of clinical priorities, and consequently optimize hospital referral. Working as cardiology consultants, the authors were able to reduce the number of first consultation requests by 77.9% (December 2002). For the first time it was possible to match the number of requests with the available consultation times, halting the growth of the waiting list.
authors.affiliation: Senviço de Cardiologia, Hospital Amadora-Sintra, Amadora, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gonçalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Proença
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: António
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Freitas
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Madeira
authors.forename: Ana Oliveira
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D002309:Cardiology; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014850:Waiting Lists