Evaluation of a telephone clinic for patients with intermittent claudication.
Although the majority of patients with intermittent claudication are stable, those who develop complications can quickly deteriorate and need a rapid response. Because the majority of issues dealt with at a routine follow-up visit are in the form of a discussion, rely on symptoms and do not require an examination, it was considered appropriate to assess if a telephone follow-up service could replace these face-to-face meetings at the authors hospital. This article discusses an evaluation, the objective of which was to pilot a nurse-led telephone follow-up system for claudicant patients in terms of feasibility, patient satisfaction and impact on out-patient vascular surgery practice. This system would maintain supervision of vascular patients to enable fast-tracking into the out-patient clinic/hospital if their symptoms deteriorated. The effectiveness of the nurse-led follow up was assessed by a retrospective analysis of the out-patient clinic attendances before and after introduction of the nurse follow-up service. Attendances decreased, leading the authors to conclude that a structured follow-up system using a telephone clinic run by a skilled and specialized vascular nurse provides excellent support and effective surveillance in patients with intermittent claudication.
East Lancashire Healthcare Trust, Royal Blackburn Hospital.
Marwan
M
Al-Dawoud
Lynda
L
Thompson
Haytham
H
Al-Khaffaf
D000359:Aftercare / Q000458:organization & administration*; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006276:Health Facility Size; D006801:Humans; D007383:Intermittent Claudication / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009731:Nursing Audit; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009737:Nursing Records; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone