Improving the surgical hot clinic

Ambulatory care is an underdeveloped concept in the setting of emergency surgery, however it is recognised that many institutions will need to develop this service to cope with increased time and financial pressures.[1] There is increased emphasis on ambulatory care pathways for a variety of medical conditions.[2] Risk management is important in managing patients with acute abdominal pain in an outpatient setting and senior doctor support is essential. While the patient remains in the community, effective communication with the patient's primary care provider improves patient safety and satisfaction.[3] This quality improvement project identified current service provision of ambulatory care for surgical patients in the hot clinic at Croydon University Hospital with subsequent consultation with the surgical department to identify problems arising from the throughput of patients. Guidelines were then updated incorporating solutions to the identified issues which were then validated by the department of general surgery. Post intervention measurement identified a decrease in patients whose principal assessment and management was made by a senior house officer level doctor through the hot clinic patient journey from 26% to 9% (64% decrease), indicating an increase in registrar and/or consultant involvement in managing the hot clinic. The number of patients attending hot clinic that had effective discharge liaison (in the form of a formal letter) to the GP increased from 18% to 68% (250% increase). In conclusion, the introduction of updated guidelines effected a safer and more effective ambulatory hot clinic to perform closer to full capacity, providing improved patient care for the local population.