Patient demographics and characteristics | |
Number of patients in teleclinics, n Age in years (mean, range) Gender (female:male) Follow up: new appointments Telephone: Video consultations Number of comorbidities (mean, SD) | 396 58.9 (17–924) 280:116 350:46 309:87 1.3 (1.2) |
Diagnoses (n, %) | |
Rheumatoid arthritis Seronegative inflammatory arthritis Psoriatic arthritis Axial spondyloarthritis Systemic lupus erythematosus Connective tissue disease (not systemic lupus erythematosus) Vasculitis (including Behcet's disease) Crystal arthritis (gout) Juvenile idiopathic arthritis Giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica Fibromyalgia Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis Other arthritis | 130 (32.8) 44 (11.1) 47 (11.9) 25 (6.3) 20 (5.1) 37 (9.4) 14 (3.5) 7 (2.3) 6 (1.0) 38 (9.8) 6 (1.5) 7 (1.8) 2 (0.5) 13 (4.0) |
Outcome of teleclinics (n, %) | |
Patient discharged No change in management, further routine appointment booked Change in management (tests ordered, prescription issued) Request to GP to give injection or treatment Adjustment to treatment (eg DMARD dose change) Patient advised to see their GP due to issues not related to their rheumatic disease orits treatment Referring the patient to another specialty Referring patient to the Injection Clinic Booking the patient into a face-to-face clinic soon Asking patient to go to A&E immediately or arranging their admission through the acute medical unit Answering the patient's question and if necessary offering them a follow-up phone call in a week or two Patient-initiated follow-up plan Unable to contact patient at time of teleconsultation | 39 (9.8) 160 (40.4) 39 (9.8) 6 (1.5) 102 (25.8) 1 (0.3) 5 (1.3) 1 (0.3) 10 (2.5) 1 (0.3) 3 (0.8) 22 (5.6) 7 (1.8) |