ArticleBone & joint open2020
Design and implementation of an acute Trauma and Orthopaedic ePlatform (TOP) referral system utilising existing secure technology during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Bone & joint open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Optimizing people's movement across the health system: a scoping review of referral systems within a primary health care approach.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Enhancing Telemedicine Communication for Improved Outpatient Pediatric Trauma Care.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- How safe and effective are paediatric virtual fracture clinics? A systematic review.Frontiers in digital health · 2023Review
- Impact of a same day admission project in reducing the preoperative bed occupancy demand in a pediatric inpatient hospital.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2022Article
- Evaluation of the First Year(s) of Physicians Collaboration on an Interdisciplinary Electronic Consultation Platform in the Netherlands: Mixed Methods Observational Study.JMIR human factors · 2022Article
- A multicentre national study of the effectiveness of virtual fracture clinic management of orthopaedic trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic (MAVCOV): a cross-sectional study protocol.Bone & joint open · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionVirtual fracture clinics (VFCs) are being increasingly used to offer safe and efficient orthopaedic review without the requirement for face-to-face contact. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we sought to develop an online referral pathway that would allow us to provide definitive orthopaedic management plans and reduce face-to-face contact at the fracture clinics.
methodsAll patients presenting to the emergency department from 21March 2020 with a musculoskeletal injury or potential musculoskeletal infection deemed to require orthopaedic input were discussed using a secure messaging app. A definitive management plan was communicated by an on-call senior orthopaedic decision-maker. We analyzed the time to decision, if further information was needed, and the referral outcome. An analysis of the orthopaedic referrals for the same period in 2019 was also performed as a comparison.
resultsDuring the study period, 295 patients with mean age of 7.93 years (standard error (SE) 0.24) were reviewed. Of these, 25 (9.8%) were admitted, 17 (5.8%) were advised to return for planned surgical intervention, 105 (35.6%) were referred to a face-to-face fracture clinic, 137 (46.4%) were discharged with no follow-up, and seven (2.4%) were referred to other services. The mean time to decision was 20.14 minutes (SE 1.73). There was a significant difference in the time to decision between patients referred to fracture clinic and patients discharged (mean 25.25 minutes (SE 3.18) vs mean 2.63 (SE 1.42); p < 0.005). There were a total of 295 referrals to the fracture clinic for the same period in 2019 with a further 44 emergency admissions. There was a statistically significant difference in the weekly referrals after being triaged by the VFC (mean 59 (SE 5.15) vs mean 21 (SE 2.17); p < 0.001).
conclusionThe use of an electronic referral pathway to deliver a point of care virtual fracture clinic allowed for efficient use of scarce resources and definitive management plan delivery in a safe manner.Cite this article:
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