title: Reducing unnecessary outpatient attendances.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this paper is to explore unnecessary outpatient department attendances and to improve efficiency by actively pre-assessing patient charts and pre-specifying management plans before scheduled outpatient visits.
  
  
  METHODS
  All charts were reviewed by a senior clinician two weeks before the clinic and a brief, written management plan made.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant reduction in clinic sizes by about 40 per cent can be expected. There was a non-significant increase in the ratio of new to review patients and no significant reduction in waiting lists.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pre-assessing patient charts leads to cancelling unnecessary outpatient reviews, which can increase outpatient department effectiveness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinical efficiency is becoming increasingly important. This work describes a simple strategy to improve outpatient department productivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, St Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, Ireland. fdonnellan77@hotmail.com
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Donnellan
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Aftab
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McGurk
mesh_terms: D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D057188:Workflow