Clinical and Healthcare Impacts of Portable Ultrasonography in Ambulatory Care Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Consultations

Abstract

Objective: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly used to evaluate patients with musculoskeletal problems. Here we evaluated the impact of POCUS in musculoskeletal consultations in primary care setting using a Philips Lumify portable ultrasound device. We aimed to determine the impact of POCUS on the number of hospital referrals for therapeutic infiltrations as well as on the number of infiltrations performed in consultation. Design: This retrospective case study compared two periods: June to September 2021 (pre-POCUS) and November 2021 to February 2022 (POCUS). Statistical comparisons were performed using the chi-squared test. In both periods, 21 medical consultations were performed. In the pre-POCUS period, 470 patients were assessed, with average of 1.29 hospital referrals made per day for infiltration and average of 2.05 infiltrations performed per day during consultation. In the POCUS period, 589 patients were assessed, with an average of 0.1 hospital referrals per day (-92.6%; p<0.00001) and an average of 2.76 infiltrations performed per day during consultation (+34.9%; p<0.00001). The introduction of POCUS at our practice drastically reduced the number of referrals made for interventional techniques and increased the number of interventional procedures performed during consultations. Conclusion: This suggests that POCUS is of great clinical value in musculoskeletal rehabilitation consultations.

Keywords

• Access to Health Services
• Musculoskeletal diseases
• Rehabilitation
• Ultrasonography, Interventional
• Value-Based Healthcare