Factors impacting the efficiency of triaging ENT (ear, nose, throat) patients in the outpatient setting

Background: Triage of ENT (ear, nose, throat) outpatient referrals is a time-consuming process. At Eastern Health, the public hospital network servicing the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, consultant ENT surgeons are tasked with individually triaging each referral. The process of rejecting a referral is often more time-consuming than accepting one, however, it is deemed an important task in order to ensure clinics are booked appropriately and run efficiently. The introduction of a state wide referral template for general practitioners (GPs) was adopted to aide in triage efficiency, however, a study of its impact in the ENT setting has not been conducted. This study also aims to identify the most common reasons for referral rejection which will help inform targets for algorithm development for artificial intelligence (AI) driven triage which can then be clinically investigated in the future to determine if AI can safely and effectively be employed in at least part of the triage process in the ENT outpatient setting.