The use of clinical photography to aid in the triage of ENT patient referrals

Abstract

Waiting lists for Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) outpatient appointments are currently the longest that they have ever been. The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has adopted a unique Clinical Photography ENT triage service to tackle this. General Practitioner referrals are triaged by ENT consultants, to identify those patients in whom otoscopic imaging could be used to detect a serious otological condition or to enable virtual management. They are triaged to Clinical Photography, to undergo digital imaging which is reviewed in a virtual clinic alongside the initial referral. 72 patients have completed the pathway, with 51.3% discharged without requirement for face-to-face consultant appointment. 9.7% were upgraded to urgent or 2 week waits. This intervention is predicted to help identify patients on the waiting list with potentially serious disease so that they do not wait excessively, and to reduce waiting times for outpatient appointments in ENT.

Keywords:

• Otolaryngology
• telemedicine
• clinical photography
• TeleENT
• outpatients
• waiting lists
• patient safety

Acknowledgements

No sources of funding or competing financial interests.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).