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First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic

PURPOSE: To describe reasons for referral, diagnostic procedures, diagnoses and long-term follow-up of first-time referred patients to a fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic (FLOCC). METHODS: A descriptive report of results obtained in a newly organised outpatient clinic. Data up to final diagnosi...

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Autores principales: Lenderink, T., Balkestein, E. J. M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Bohn Stafleu van Loghum 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639834/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30953280
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-1266-x
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author Lenderink, T.
Balkestein, E. J. M.
author_facet Lenderink, T.
Balkestein, E. J. M.
author_sort Lenderink, T.
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: To describe reasons for referral, diagnostic procedures, diagnoses and long-term follow-up of first-time referred patients to a fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic (FLOCC). METHODS: A descriptive report of results obtained in a newly organised outpatient clinic. Data up to final diagnosis were recorded from electronic medical records. Follow-up data were obtained from electronic medical records, contacting patients and/or their general practitioners. RESULTS: During the first 3 months of 2007, 419 patients were seen at the FLOCC. Of these patients, 360 were referred by general practitioners, 55 by other specialists and four were self-referrals. The largest referral groups were: chest complaints (44%), palpitations (19%) and dyspnoea (12%). In 65% of the 419 patients, cardiovascular disease was ruled out and they were discharged. Of these, 41% of the diagnoses were made on the same day, with a further 44% after additional investigations, mostly Holter registration. During 10 years of follow-up, 49 patients died: 17 of cardiac, 29 of non-cardiac, mainly cancer, and three of unknown causes. Of the initially discharged patients, 35% were referred again after an average of 4 years (1,443 days), with 47% reporting similar complaints. CONCLUSION: Of the patients referred to our FLOCC, most had chest pain. In one-third of all patients, cardiac disease was ruled out on the same day. Of all the patients discharged, 85% were diagnosed after basic investigations that could be ordered by a general practitioner. Holter registration was the most frequently requested additional investigation. These results support the development of less expensive, easily accessible extramural cardiology clinics.
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spelling pubmed-66398342019-08-01 First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic Lenderink, T. Balkestein, E. J. M. Neth Heart J Original Article PURPOSE: To describe reasons for referral, diagnostic procedures, diagnoses and long-term follow-up of first-time referred patients to a fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic (FLOCC). METHODS: A descriptive report of results obtained in a newly organised outpatient clinic. Data up to final diagnosis were recorded from electronic medical records. Follow-up data were obtained from electronic medical records, contacting patients and/or their general practitioners. RESULTS: During the first 3 months of 2007, 419 patients were seen at the FLOCC. Of these patients, 360 were referred by general practitioners, 55 by other specialists and four were self-referrals. The largest referral groups were: chest complaints (44%), palpitations (19%) and dyspnoea (12%). In 65% of the 419 patients, cardiovascular disease was ruled out and they were discharged. Of these, 41% of the diagnoses were made on the same day, with a further 44% after additional investigations, mostly Holter registration. During 10 years of follow-up, 49 patients died: 17 of cardiac, 29 of non-cardiac, mainly cancer, and three of unknown causes. Of the initially discharged patients, 35% were referred again after an average of 4 years (1,443 days), with 47% reporting similar complaints. CONCLUSION: Of the patients referred to our FLOCC, most had chest pain. In one-third of all patients, cardiac disease was ruled out on the same day. Of all the patients discharged, 85% were diagnosed after basic investigations that could be ordered by a general practitioner. Holter registration was the most frequently requested additional investigation. These results support the development of less expensive, easily accessible extramural cardiology clinics. Bohn Stafleu van Loghum 2019-04-05 2019-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6639834/ /pubmed/30953280 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-1266-x Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Original Article
Lenderink, T.
Balkestein, E. J. M.
First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic
title First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic
title_full First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic
title_fullStr First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic
title_full_unstemmed First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic
title_short First time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a Dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic
title_sort first time referral reasons, diagnoses and 10-year follow-up of patients seen at a dutch fast lane outpatient cardiology clinic
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639834/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30953280
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-1266-x
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