Table 5: Median wait time from symptom onset to rheumatologist consultation for systemic inflammatory rheumatic diseases*.
| Variable | Rheumatoid arthritis n = 101 |
Inflammatory arthritis, other n = 147 |
Crystal arthropathy n = 97 |
Spondylitis/ spondylo-arthropathy n = 56 |
Psoriatic arthritis n = 35 |
Polymyalgia rheumatica n = 60 |
Vasculitis n = 18 |
Other systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease n = 96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median wait time (IQR), d | ||||||||
| Symptom onset to primary care visit† | 173 (16-189) |
102 (10-112) |
188 (4-192) |
716 (14-730) |
228 (17-245) |
63 (14-77) |
128 (3-131) |
208 (14-222) |
| Primary care visit to referral‡ | 115 (14-128) |
125 (11-136) |
353 (20-373) |
173 (7-181) |
513 (15-528) |
123 (15-138) |
73 (7-80) |
181 (7-188) |
| Symptom onset to referral | 326 (49-375) |
259 (41-300) |
1326 (48-1374) |
1342 (63-1405) |
627 (90-7167) |
238 (55-293) |
293 (33-325) |
855 (44-899) |
| Referral to rheumatologist consultation§ | 66 (15-81) |
55 (17-71) |
69 (24-93) |
62 (29-91) |
88 (30-117) |
53 (11-64) |
28 (11-39) |
62 (22-83) |
| Symptom onset to rheumatologist consultation | 327 (83-410) |
260 (91-350) |
1312 (111-1423) |
1262 (112-1374) |
680 (125-805) |
240 (81-321) |
608 (59-667) |
940 (113-1053) |
| No. (%) of patients seen by rheumatologist within: | ||||||||
| 3 mo from symptom onset | 24 (24) | 31 (21) | 15 (15) | 8 (14) | NR¶ | 17 (28) | NR¶ | 16 (17) |
| 6 mo from symptom onset | 42 (42) | 67 (46) | 34 (35) | 19 (34) | 12 (34) | 32 (53) | 7 (39) | 29 (30) |
| 9 mo from symptom onset | 50 (50) | 86 (59) | 44 (45) | 22 (39) | 15 (43) | 38 (63) | 8 (44) | 40 (42) |
| 12 mo from symptom onset | 60 (59) | 97 (66) | 46 (47) | 23 (41) | 17 (49) | 43 (72) | 10 (56) | 45 (47) |
Note: IQR = interquartile range, NR = not reportable.
*Analyses confined to patients with date of symptom onset captured in their medical record.
†Defined as first documentation of the complaint within the primary care medical record.
‡Defined as the date the referral was sent to the rheumatologist.
§Defined as the first visit to the rheumatologist.
¶Suppressed to protect privacy.