An analysis of computer-assisted pre-screening prior to elective surgery

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Health Informatics
• Patient Triage

Background:

• Preoperative assessment is crucial for surgical safety and resource allocation.
• Traditional outpatient preoperative clinics can be resource-intensive.
• Exploring efficient triage tools is essential for modern healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate guided patient self-assessment via telephone as an early preoperative triage tool.
• To compare telephone assessment with traditional face-to-face anaesthetist evaluation.
• To determine the feasibility of streaming patients directly to day of surgery assessment.

Main Methods:

• A computer-assisted telephone questionnaire was administered by non-clinicians to 514 elective surgery patients.
• Assessments were compared to face-to-face interviews and examinations by anaesthetists.
• Specialist anaesthetists reviewed data to identify patients suitable for bypassing outpatient assessment.

Main Results:

• Telephone assessment quality was comparable to face-to-face interviews for most patients.
• 60% of patients (398/514) were deemed suitable for day of surgery assessment.
• Telephone triage demonstrated high sensitivity (98%) and specificity (97%) for patient classification.

Conclusions:

• Remote computer-assisted assessment effectively gathers quality patient health information.
• This approach enables efficient early patient work-up and triage.
• Utilizing telephone self-assessment can potentially reduce healthcare costs through resource optimization.