Quick diagnosis unit: an alternative to conventional hospitalization. Two years experience: an observational descriptive study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In recent years, different care options have been appearing that allow the diagnostic and therapeutic process to be developed in other areas different from conventional hospitalization. In this context is where the Quick Diagnostic Units have emerged, designed to diagnose patients with a potentially serious illness but with a preserved baseline state. AIMS: Our goal was to describe the functioning of the rapid diagnosis unit during the first two years of its implementation at the Hospital Doctor Josep Trueta and to compare the results of the study with the QDUs of other hospitals that have previously published their results. DESIGN AND METHODS: We realize an Observational Descriptive Longitudinal Retrospective Study evaluating the 226 patients referred to the QDU of Hospital Doctor Josep Trueta evaluated between 2017 and 2019. We analysed several variables, including first visit interval, time to diagnosis and final diagnosis. RESULTS: 161 patients were attended at the QDU during the first two years of implementation. The main reason of referral was Constitutional Syndrome representing the 22.4% of the patients, followed by imaging test alterations. The average number of days it took to perform all the tests was 18.3 days. The most frequent diagnoses were cancer (20.5%; mainly lymphoma and colon cancer) infection (15.5%), gastrointestinal disorders (13.6%) and systemic diseases (11.8%). The mean time to diagnosis was of 44.4 days (±48) and a 28-day median. On the other hand, 61 patients were rejected for being attended at the QDU since most of them (58.5%) were suitable for an external consultation by a conventional specialist