Unique (or high resolution) consultation in Hospital and Primary Care pediatric centres: an instrument of improvement in health care quality

Unique (or high resolution) consultation aims at resolving the health problem of a patient in only one day, as an efficiency alternative to conventional outpatients consultations (in hospitals and primary health care centres). The objective is to make a diagnostic and therapeutic approach in the shortest time possible, empowering the first visits and reducing the second ones. For a standard consultation in the traditional model it would be necessary 3 days of health care attendance (one for the first visit, another for the complementary tests, and the third one for results and treatment), while unique consultations only need one day. We comment the advantages and disadvantages of unique (or high resolution) consultation in our health care pediatric context, like an instrument of improvement in health care quality: increases the satisfaction of the patients, improves the accessibility and reduces costs, and it has not been proved that it decreases the effectiveness, efficiency and security. The important question in this new model of outpatient consultations is if it is feasible in the actual health care system, with the complexity and over utilization of hospital and primary care pediatric centers.