Abstract
Acute nasal fracture is one of the commonest referrals to the ENT emergency clinic. Many patients attending the clinic reported little or no change in the external appearance of their nose, so a telephone triage service was developed to identify patients that would benefit from a face‐to‐face appointment for manipulation. The telephone triage system led to a reduction in nasal fracture face‐to‐face appointments by half (from 16.8% to 8.5% of the total). Patients that underwent a review after a telephone triage had a greater requirement for manipulation (49.7% compared to 29.6% in the control group). The telephone triage strategy led to a two‐fold improvement in utilisation of outpatient capacity in the National Health Service by reducing the need for face‐to‐face appointments, and by decreasing patients' non‐attendance to their appointments. Although in place prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the telephone triage service was particularly useful as an alternative way of working to reduce the need for face‐to‐face interaction. Further work is needed to explore the scope of telemedicine in ENT.
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