Introduction of a dedicated colic clinic reduces referral to treatment times in patients managed expectantly with acute ureteric colic: a quality improvement project.

Ureteric colic constitutes a large proportion of acute hospital attendances, across the UK, putting pressure on urological services. The British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) guidelines indicate that for patients managed expectantly, a clinic review should be undertaken within 4 weeks of presentation. This quality improvement project reports the benefit of a dedicated virtual colic clinic to facilitate an efficient care pathway and reduce patient waiting times. A retrospective cycle analysed patients referred from the emergency department (ED) with uncomplicated acute ureteric colic (excluding those admitted for immediate intervention) over 2 months in 2019. A further cycle was carried out 12 months later following the introduction of a new dedicated virtual colic clinic with updated ED referral guidance. The mean time from ED referral to urology clinic review fell from 7.5 to 3.5 weeks. The percentage of patients reviewed in clinic within 4 weeks increased from 25% to 82%. The mean time from referral to intervention including shockwave lithotripsy and primary ureteroscopy fell from 15 to 5 weeks. The introduction of a virtual colic clinic improved the time to definitive management of ureteric stones for patients managed expectantly as per BAUS guidelines. This has reduced waiting times for both clinic review and stone treatment which has enhanced patient experience within our service.

Safety of "hot" and "cold" site admissions within a high-volume urology department in the United Kingdom at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the safety of urological admissions and procedures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic using "hot" and "cold" sites. The secondary objective is to determine risk factors of contracting COVID-19 within our cohort. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of all consecutive patients admitted from March 1 to May 31, 2020 at a high-volume tertiary urology department in London, United Kingdom. Elective surgery was carried out at a "cold" site requiring a negative COVID-19 swab 72-hours prior to admission and patients were required to self-isolate for 14-days preoperatively, while all acute admissions were admitted to the "hot" site.Complications related to COVID-19 were presented as percentages. Risk factors for developing COVID-19 infection were determined using multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of 611 patients, 451 (73.8%) male and 160 (26.2%) female, with a median age of 57 (interquartile range 44-70) were admitted under the urology team; 101 (16.5%) on the "cold" site and 510 (83.5%) on the "hot" site. Procedures were performed in 495 patients of which eight (1.6%) contracted COVID-19 postoperatively with one (0.2%) postoperative mortality due to COVID-19. Overall, COVID-19 was detected in 20 (3.3%) patients with two (0.3%) deaths. Length of stay was associated with contracting COVID-19 in our cohort (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.13-1.39). CONCLUSIONS: Continuation of urological procedures using "hot" and "cold" sites throughout the COVID-19 pandemic was safe practice, although the risk of COVID-19 remained and is underlined by a postoperative mortality.