Getting it Right First Time in Trauma Clinic: How a Pandemic Improved Service Provision for Orthopaedic Patients

Abstract

Introduction: The 2019 coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) fast became a global pandemic. In the United Kingdom, guidlines were introduced to help control the spread of this virus. Hospitals made significant changes to accommodate for the change in demand. Orthopaedic trauma services needed to remain, however, the management of orthopaedic trauma needed modifying to comply with government and hospital guidelines. Method: Queens’s hospital, Burton, is a level III trauma unit. The orthopaedic department manages upper and lower limb trauma as well as head and chest and spine trauma. Injured patients can be referred to the orthopaedic team from the community or from the Major and Minor Emergency Department. To accommodate new guidelines, the orthopaedic department introduced a ‘virtual clinic’ and a ‘trauma clinic’. The virtual clinic took place in the morning and discussed referrals from the day before. The ‘trauma clinic’ followed on from the virtual clinic and lasted the remainder of the day. Results: The intervention introduced to Queens’s hospital was beneficial for patients, staff and for the hospital. It improved waiting times, reduced the time patients spent in hospital, reduced the number of hospital attendees and enhanced knowledge of common orthopaedic injuries for staffing involved in reviewing and managing these injuries. Conclusion: For our department, these changes improved service provision, staff education and patient safety. These benefits could be seen in other trusts if a similar method of managing trauma patients was introduced.