Evaluation of health service outcomes for an audiology first point of contact retrocochlear clinic: a 6-year retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Objective

Although existing studies of audiology first point of contact clinics which screen for retrocochlear pathology have demonstrated positive clinical outcomes, they have provided limited information regarding service impacts. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate both the clinical and health service outcomes of an audiology first point of contact (FPOC) clinic for adults referred to ENT services with suspected retrocochlear pathology.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Study sample

All 1123 patients referred to the clinic over a 6-year period (2013–2019).

Results

Most (73.7%) of the 1123 patients referred to the Retrocochlear Clinic were managed and discharged by the audiologist and did not require ENT appointment. Almost half (43.1%) were directly referred for MRI imaging, of which 4 (1.1%) were diagnosed with Vestibular Schwannoma. Waiting times for first appointments significantly (p < 0.001) reduced from a median of 748 days to 63.5 days over the 6-year period. Attendance rates also significantly (p < 0.001) improved over this time (from 52.2% to 90%). There were no adverse events reported. Of those discharged without attending an ENT appointment, 1.8% were rereferred to ENT within 12 months of discharge.

Conclusions

This audiology FPOC Retrocochlear Clinic was shown to be a safe and effective alternative service model.

Keywords:

• Retrospective studies
• retrocochlear
• otolaryngology
• unilateral hearing loss
• vestibular schwannoma

Ethical approval

The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional guidelines on human experimentation (NHMRC National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. Ethical approval, including for a waiver of consent, was sought and obtained by the Metro South Human Research Ethics Committee within Queensland Health (HREC/2020/QMS/63625).

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, AH, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded in kind by the Speech Pathology and Audiology Department, Logan Hospital.