Quality Improvement of a Hip Injection Service

Background Osteoarthritis is a substantive burden on the population and National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. A recent systematic review suggests that intra-articular steroid injections are an efficacious conservative treatment modality. The NHS Constitution states that “patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from GP referral to treatment.” An NHS hospital trust failed to meet this standard in a quarter of patients waiting for an intra-articular steroid injection of the hip. Strategies were considered to improve the time from referral to treatment (RTT). The aim of this quality improvement project was to improve the efficiency and capacity of the injection list. Materials and methods Patients who underwent an injection on a list between January and April 2019 were identified. Data were retrospectively collected and included the sites of injection and waiting times. Proformas for documentation and discharge summaries were introduced. Time taken for each appointment pre- and post-intervention were compared with the aim to increase the number of patients per list. Results Thirty-six (26%) of 138 patients experienced delays beyond 18 weeks from RTT. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) number of weeks waiting for an injection from the time of referral was 14 (6). The mean (SD) time for each appointment was 12 minutes 36 seconds (7 minutes 36 seconds) pre-intervention and 8 minutes 36 seconds (3 minutes 12 seconds) post-intervention. Discussion and conclusion Our standardized proformas led to an improvement in efficiency by reducing the time taken for documentation and capacity by subsequently increasing the number of patients per list.