Nurse-led triage of otolaryngology out-patient referrals: an acceptable alternative?

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To establish the safety and effectiveness of nurse-led triage of otolaryngology out-patient referrals. METHOD: One hundred consecutive general practitioner referrals were reviewed by two consultants, two specialist registrars, two foundation year two senior house officers and two otolaryngology nurses. One of the nurses had received triage training. All referrals were triaged as 'urgent', 'soon' or 'routine' by each rater. RESULTS: The triage-trained nurse's results demonstrated good agreement with those of the senior consultant (80 per cent). This agreement was similar to that with the other consultant (77 per cent) and the specialist registrars (79 and 82 per cent). Weighted kappa statistics (correcting for chance agreement) showed that the triage-trained nurse had the second closest agreement to the senior consultant (0.66). After the actual out-patient appointments, retrospective review of the patients' case notes revealed that none had been triaged inappropriately by the trained nurse, and no urgent cases had been missed. CONCLUSIONS: Triage of out-patient referrals by trained ENT nurses is safe and effective, and is an acceptable alternative to traditional consultant vetting of referrals.