{"id":13431,"date":"2026-06-02T16:05:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/uncategorized\/stars-pifu-trial"},"modified":"2026-06-02T16:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:05:41","slug":"stars-pifu-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/news\/stars-pifu-trial","title":{"rendered":"Patient Initiated Follow Up putting patients first at STARS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patient Initiated Follow Up putting patients first at STARS<\/h1>\n
\"Dr

Dr Vasani and the team at STARS are involved in the Patient Initiated Follow Up (PIFU) trial<\/p><\/div>\n

Traditionally, when people attend an outpatient appointment with a specialist, a follow-up appointment is provided automatically. In many cases, the patient may not require this follow-up appointment\u2014their health issue may have resolved and they have no clinical reason to return to the hospital.<\/h4>\n

To reduce unnecessary appointments for patients, the Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS) is piloting a new Patient Initiated Follow Up (PIFU) pathway for ear, nose and throat (ENT) patients.<\/p>\n

For ENT Consultant Dr Sarju Vasani, PIFU delivers great benefits to patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttending follow-up appointments can be disruptive to a patient\u2019s life and may require them to travel, which can be time consuming and costly,\u201d Dr Vasani said<\/p>\n

\u201cPIFU supports patient-centred care and decision making, by empowering patients to request a follow up outpatient specialist appointment when required, rather than attend a routine appointment unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cENT patients participating in PIFU can request an appointment if they have persistent and\/or worsening symptoms, or even if they just want to talk through their medical conditions and treatment options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Vasani said the ENT specialist team will contact the patient, usually within 3 working days, and arrange a face-to-face appointment if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis provides the patient with timely access to see a specialist, rather than waiting until the scheduled follow-up appointment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe patient\u2019s referring doctor is also informed that their patient is participating in PIFU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Vasani said in addition to saving patients the hassle of attending appointments they don\u2019t require, PIFU frees up capacity for other patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy reducing follow up appointments that aren\u2019t required, it means more patients will be able to see a specialist, reducing the current wait times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The patients who have signed up to the pilot to date have been very satisfied with the new pathway.<\/p>\n

\u201cPIFU has been understood by a variety of patients and adopted well. 100% of the patients report feeling confident navigating the pathway and would recommend PIFU to another patient,\u201d Dr Vasani said.<\/p>\n

STARS has received positive comments from patients about the benefits including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u2018I won\u2019t have to pay for parking unnecessarily\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018I have no complications and hence I don\u2019t have a reason to go to an appointment\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018It avoids congesting the system, so appointments are available for others\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018I can get an appointment and I\u2019m not having to wait until my next appointment as I did last time\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018Instead of having a planned appointment and the day is wasted when all is good, if you have an issue you can book an appointment, that is a good thing\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018Good quality care, looked after, eased anxiety\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018Letting you go and leaving you alone but know help is there if you need it\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018Simplicity and understanding\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The PIFU pilot with ENT patients will run for 12 months.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    STARS ENT patients will be offered a new pathway empowering them to request a follow up outpatients specialist appointment when required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":13432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1478,1596],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-stars","category-metro-north-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13433,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431\/revisions\/13433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}