Cardiac pathology contributes to a significant proportion of emergency department (ED) attendances. Many could be managed as urgent outpatients and avoid hospital admission. We evaluated a novel rapidaccess general cardiology clinic to achieve this, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. We performed a retrospective review of baseline characteristics, investigations, final diagnoses, and 90-day safety (readmission, major adverse cardiovascular events [MACE], mortality) from electronic records and conducted a patient experience survey. There were 216 ED referrals made between 1 June and 30 October 2020. The median time to review was two days (interquartile range 1-5). At 90 days, there were three (1.4%) representations requiring admission, two (0.9%) MACE, and no deaths. There were 205 (95%) successfully managed without hospital admission. Among surveyed patients, 96% felt they had concerns adequately addressed in a timely manner. In conclusion, our rapid-access cardiology clinic is a safe model for outpatient management of a range of cardiovascular presentations to the ED.
Keywords: admission avoidance; cardiology; emergency medicine; rapidaccess clinic.
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