Category 1 pleural service |
Basic pleural interventions. Streamlined referral pathways for advanced diagnostics and therapeutics. Dedicated pleural lead with appropriate time allocated within job plan. Published hospital pathways for pleural disease management. Standardisation of equipment optimising safety of pleural intervention. Standardised procedural documentation and checklists. Implementation and compliance to National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures and Local Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures standards. Unified process for Incident investigation in pleural medicine.
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Category 2 pleural service |
At least one intermediate thoracic ultrasound and pleural procedure operator. Dedicated pleural clinic and ambulatory pathways. Dedicated pleural procedure area/room. Inpatient in-reach with physician led bedside ultrasound. Consideration to specialist pleural nurse and pleural administrator roles. Prospective data collection for performance monitoring. Audit trail for ultrasound images prior to pleural procedures.
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Category 3 pleural service |
Lead consultants have a minimum 4× programmed activities for service delivery and development. Advanced diagnostics and therapeutics including medical thoracoscopy and IPC. Dedicated pathways and rapid access for IPC-related problems. Active engagement in pleural research trials. Consideration to developing a fellowship programme. Multidisciplinary team framework for pathway and list planning, trial screening, difficult cases.
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