ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Medical-nursing Integrated Service Model in Ophthalmic Outpatient Care for Intravitreal Injections: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Ophthalmology, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China
- 2School of Nursing, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China
- 3School of Continuing Education, Guiyang Healthcare Vocational University, Guiyang, China
- 4Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Jiangsu College of Nursing, Huaian, China
- 5Guiyang Maternal and child Health Care Hospital, Guiyang, China
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Abstract Background: Outpatient intravitreal injections are widely utilized in contemporary ophthalmology practice. However, fragmented medical-nursing coordination and compressed clinical pathways challenge treatment standardization and compromise patient outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated medical-nursing service model compared to conventional separated care in patients undergoing outpatient intravitreal injections. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted involving 1,432 patients undergoing outpatient intravitreal injections at our hospital's ophthalmology department. Patients were divided into two groups: a control group (n=631) receiving conventional separated medical and nursing care and an intervention group (n=801) experiencing an integrated medical-nursing service model. Key outcome measures included patient satisfaction, correct usage rates of preoperative antibiotic eye drops, standardized treatment rates, vision-related quality of life using NEI-VFQ-25 scores, and complication rates. Results: Compared with the control group, the intervention group showed significantly higher patient satisfaction (P<0.001), higher correct usage rates of preoperative antibiotic eye drops (P<0.001), higher standardized treatment rates (P<0.001), and improved NEI-VFQ-25 scores (P<0.001). Additionally, the intervention group experienced significantly lower rates of complications, including subconjunctival hemorrhage (1.12% vs 5.71%), postoperative intraocular pressure elevation (0.25% vs 3.33%), and infectious conjunctivitis (0.50% vs 3.65%), all with P<0.001. Conclusions: The medical-nursing integrated service model significantly improves patient satisfaction, medication compliance, standardized treatment rates, and vision-related quality of life and reduces complications in outpatient intravitreal injections procedures. These findings suggest that this model effectively addresses key challenges in outpatient procedure delivery while enhancing both clinical outcomes and patient experience.
Keywords: Ophthalmology, Medical-nursing integrated service model, outpatient care, Intravitreal injection, Quality Improvement
Received: 20 Aug 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LAN, Li, CHENG, HUANG, GUO, Yang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaofang Yang
Baolu Zhang
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