Osteoarthritis, gout, and joint pain
Minimum referral criteria
Category 1 - Seen within 30 days |
|
Category 2 - Seen within 90 days |
|
Category 3 - Seen within 365 days |
|
Standard information for all referrals
Reason for request
- To establish a diagnosis
- For treatment or intervention
- For advice and management
- For specialist to take over management
- Reassurance for general practitioner or second opinion
- For a specified test or investigation the general practitioner can't order, or the patient can't afford or access
- Reassurance for the patient or family
- For other reason (e.g., rapidly accelerating disease progression)
- Clinical judgement indicates a referral for specialist review is necessary
Patient's demographic details
- Full name (including aliases)
- Date of birth
- Residential and postal address
- Phone contact numbers – home, mobile and alternative
- Medicare number (where eligible)
- Name of the parent or caregiver (if appropriate)
- Preferred language and interpreter requirements
- Identifies as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Referring practitioner details
- Full name
- Full address
- Contact details – phone, fax, email
- Provider number
- Date of referral
- Signature
- Patient's usual general practitioner (if different from above)
Relevant clinical information about the condition
- Inclusion of Clinical Prioritisation Criteria (CPC) where relevant
- Presenting symptoms (evolution and duration)
- Physical findings
- Investigations carried out and results as indicated in the relevant pathway
- Details of previous treatment (including systemic and topical medications prescribed) including the course and outcome of the treatment
- Options already pursued
- Body mass index (BMI)
- Details of any associated medical conditions which may affect the condition or its treatment (e.g. diabetes), noting these must be stable and controlled prior to referral
- Current medications and dosages
- Drug allergies
- Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs use
Clinical modifiers
- Impact on employment
- Impact on education
- Impact on home
- Impact on activities of daily living
- Impact on ability to care for others
- Impact on personal frailty or safety
- Identifies as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Other relevant information
- Willingness to have surgery (where surgery is a likely intervention)
- Choice to be treated as a public or private patient
- Compensable status (e.g., DVA, WorkCover, motor vehicle insurance)
Essential information
- Relevant medical history, comorbidities and medications
- Description of joints affected (swelling, pain, morning stiffness)
- Details of treatments offered and assessments of efficacy
- Interference with activities of daily living and working ability
- FBC, ESR, urea, creatinine, and LFT results
Additional information
- Imaging of joints (X‑ray, CT, MRI results)
- Urinalysis results
- If suspected inflammatory or crystal arthropathy include ESR or CRP, uric acid, rheumatoid factor, anti‑cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) and anti‑nuclear antibodies (ANA) results
Information for your patient
Expected time frame for appointment notifications
- Once the request is received, categorisation by the hospital will occur.
- General practitioners and patients are notified of the assigned category between 14 days to 1 month after completed request is received.
- Patients are usually notified of the upcoming appointment time and date approximately 4 weeks prior unless short notice appointments become available.
Appointment information
- Patients will be given an appointment via phone, SMS, or letter.
- The patient must contact the hospital to reschedule if they are not able to attend.
- If the patient fails to respond to 2 appointment offers:
- They will be discharged back to their general practitioner.
- They can have a new request for assessment sent to the hospital if the need still exists.
- The patient's first appointment may not always be with a specialist. Where appropriate, the request may be sent to a public allied health or nursing service for initial assessment and management. A specialist assessment may then be arranged or ruled out.
Ask your patient to:
- take a list of current medications, and all relevant radiology films and reports to appointments.
- advise of any change in circumstance (e.g., getting worse or becoming pregnant), as this may affect the request for assessment.
- update their contact details (e.g., phone number and address) with the hospital.
Last updated: 24 January 2020
