Referral of Surgical Patients to an Anaesthetic Clinic: A Decision-making Analysis

Abstract

Effective utilization of an anaesthetic clinic depends on appropriate referral of high-risk surgical patients. The decision-making behaviour of anaesthetists and nurses was examined to identify factors that influence the referral of patients to an outpatient anaesthetic clinic. Eleven consultant anaesthetists, seven anaesthetic trainees and sixteen nurses working in anaesthetic areas estimated the likelihood that they would refer patients for each of the 30 scenarios presented. The relative importance of each factor influencing the decision to refer as determined by the 34 participants were: type of procedure (22%), co-morbidities (18%), fitness (13%), history of anaesthetic problems (12%), medications (11%), age (10%), obesity (8%) and anxiety (6%). Indicative risk factors identified were aged 65 years or over, unable to climb more than two flights of stairs, presence of significant medical problems, gross obesity, history of anaesthetic problems, taking regular medications, scheduled for major surgery and expressed anxiety about the anaesthetic. There were large variations in the decision-making behaviour among health professional groups.