The Use of a Self-Administered Questionnaire to Reduce Consultation Wait Times for Potential Elective Lumbar Spinal Surgical Candidates: A Prospective, Pragmatic, Blinded, Randomized Controlled Quality Improvement Study.

227 patients triaged for a lumbar condition were randomized to receive the standardized triage system (P1 Urgent, P2 Possibly Surgical, P3 Routine Non-urgent) with or without re-triage based on the responses of a 3-item questionnaire (3IQ) to identify leg-dominant symptoms. Responses in the 3IQ could be used upgrade their consultation priority status. Cases with an initial P1 designation upon referral were excluded. Outcomes of interest included the number of patients deemed surgical candidates, wait time for consultation, and the number of patients with a wait time for consultation of 3 months or less. The difference between groups in mean time to consultation among patients who were deemed surgical candidates did not reach statistical significance, though the rate of surgical candidates seen within 3 months or less of referral was significantly higher among those whose 3IQ responses were used for re-triage.