Evaluating diagnostic and management agreement between audiology and ENT: a prospective inter-rater agreement study in a paediatric primary contact clinic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) primary contact models of care use audiologists as the first triage point for children referred to ENT for middle ear and hearing concerns; and have shown reduced waiting time, improved ENT surgical conversion rates and increased service capacity. This study aimed to investigate 'safety and quality' of the model by looking at agreement between audiologists' and an ENT's clinical decisions.  METHODS: We performed an inter-rater agreement study on diagnosis and management decisions made by audiologists and an ENT for 50 children seen in an Australian hospital's ENT primary contact service, and examined the nature and patterns of disagreements.

Results

Professionals agreed on at least one site-of-lesion diagnosis for all children (100%) and

SUBMITTER: Eakin J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9641870 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature