Strategies for organizing rheumatology consultations

Introduction

The prevalence of rheumatic disease in the general population is approximately 10%. At the same time, there has been an increase in the workload of rheumatology services, particularly concerning consultations. Many health institutions have limited the duration of rheumatology consultation to about 15 min. This article demonstrates the need to lengthen the duration rheumatology consultations.

Objective

The goal of this work is to review the literature about the standards for the duration of rheumatology consultations and to propose new organizational strategies in this regard.

Materials and methods

A narrative review of the current literature related to care standards in rheumatology consultations was carried out, including the wide variety of diagnostic procedures, which decisively influence the duration of these consultations.

Results and discussion

Organizational strategies are proposed, based on classifying consultations into first, second, and follow-up visits, with a specific daily number, and giving more time to the first two types of consultations. Although this planning implies greater effort on the part of administrative staff, it will undoubtedly result in a better quality of care for rheumatology patients.