Abstract
Objectives: In response to the ENT UK guidance at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak to cancel all routine clinics and give patients telephone reviews, the ENT department at the West Suffolk Hospital decided to trial a questionnaire to help clinicians with telephone assessment of patients with dizziness. This study aimed to assess what effect introducing a questionnaire had on the telephone consultation outcomes.
Study Design: Prospective Single Centre Randomised Pilot Study using the Roland Dizziness Questionnaire (RDQ)(1).
Participants: All 115 patients awaiting otolaryngological assessment for balance were randomised to receive a validated dizziness questionnaire or not.
Main Outcome Measures: Consultation outcomes recorded: ability to come to a diagnosis, need for investigations, need for additional follow up and onward referral to other specialties.
Results and Conclusions: 82/115 patients had consultations with complete data collection, 35 in the questionnaire group (QG) and 47 in the no questionnaire group (NQG). Response rate (returned completed questionnaires) in the QG was 70%. Clinicians came to a provisional diagnosis in 77% of QG patients vs 57% of NQG patients. QG patients only required additional investigations 26% of the time compared to 72% in the NQG (p<0.05). Only 17% of QG patients needed additional telephone follow up, compared to 43% of NQG patients (P<0.05).
Using an abbreviated dizziness questionnaire increased clinicians’ ability to come to a diagnosis at the end of a telephone consultation. It reduced the need for additional investigations and further telephone follow-up, thereby keeping patients away from the hospital and freeing up capacity.