Publications by authors named "Elisabet Montori-Palacin"
Background: Despite their frequency and potential impact on prognosis, cancers diagnosed via self-referral to the emergency department are poorly documented. We conducted a detailed analysis of cancer patients diagnosed following emergency self-referral and compared them with those diagnosed following emergency referral from primary care. Given the challenges associated with measuring intervals in the emergency self-referral pathway, we also aimed to provide a definition of the diagnostic interval for these cancers.
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- The study investigates how the route of diagnosis (emergency vs. nonemergency) and the type of symptoms influence the time it takes to diagnose various cancers and their outcomes.
- Researchers analyzed data from over 6,700 cancer patients diagnosed at a hospital in Barcelona between 2013 and 2023, focusing on both emergency presentation routes and primary care referrals.
- Results show that patients with specific alarm symptoms had quicker diagnosis times compared to those with nonlocalizing symptoms, with emergency routes generally leading to faster diagnosis than nonemergency referrals.
Article Synopsis
- The study examined the relationship between the number of primary care consultations and the time taken from initial presentation to cancer diagnosis in emergency cases compared to nonemergency cases.
- It found a strong correlation in emergency patients where a higher number of consultations often resulted in longer diagnostic intervals, particularly for certain cancer types like pancreatic and lung cancers.
- The results indicate a need for system-level interventions to minimize delays in diagnosis for cancer patients who have had multiple consultations prior to emergency referral.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how long it takes for cancer patients to get diagnosed after they first notice symptoms, comparing emergency presentations to those who go through primary care.
- Data was gathered from outpatients diagnosed with 15 types of solid cancers over five years, focusing on the time taken from first symptoms to diagnosis based on the route of presentation.
- Findings show that patients diagnosed through emergency services had shorter intervals than those through primary care, but those with multiple prior consultations in primary care had similar intervals to those diagnosed in primary care, indicating that previous visits can significantly affect diagnosis timing.
Article Synopsis
- Research shows that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the time it took for patients to be diagnosed with cancer, especially during the early months of the pandemic.
- The study compared diagnosis intervals for various cancers before and during the pandemic, identifying that the average patient interval for diagnosis increased from 20 days in the nonpandemic period to 39 days in the early COVID period.
- The findings suggest that these delays led to cancers being diagnosed at more advanced stages, highlighting the need for strategies to address these delays and improve cancer care during crises.
Financial crisis has forced health systems to seek alternatives to hospitalization-based healthcare. Quick diagnosis units (QDUs) are cost-effective compared to hospitalization, but the determinants of QDU costs have not been studied.We aimed at assessing the predictors of costs of a district hospital QDU (Hospital Plató, Barcelona) between 2009 and 2016.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile quick diagnosis units (QDUs) have expanded as an innovative cost-effective alternative to admission for workup, studies investigating how QDUs compare are lacking. This study aimed to comparatively describe the diagnostic performance of the QDU of an urban district hospital and the QDU of its reference general hospital.This was an observational descriptive study of 336 consecutive outpatients aged ≥18 years referred to the QDU of a urban district hospital in Barcelona (QDU1) during 2009 to 2016 for evaluation of suspected severe conditions whose physical performance allowed them to travel from home to hospital and back for visits and examinations.
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