Telephone-based digital triage for urgent care
Citation: Sexton V, Dale J, Bryce C, et al. Service use, clinical outcomes and user experience associated with urgent care services that use telephone-based digital triage: a systematic review. BMJ Open. 2022;12:e051569.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: University of Warwick and Advanced (UK).
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for studies that investigated the use, advice, outcomes, and experiences associated with telephone-based digital triage in urgent care. They restricted their searches to articles published in English between March 2000 and April 2020. They excluded studies of triage in general practice during office hours. The authors found 31 studies. This systematic review was registered with PROSPERO, number CRD CRD42020178500.
What was found: Half of the studies were from the UK and most investigated nurse-led digital triage. The most commonly reported symptoms were abdominal or digestive symptoms and respiratory problems. Most studies reported a reduction or no change in health service use following the triage. Service users reported overall satisfaction with digital triage.
Implications: The authors of the review noted gaps in the literature for clinical outcomes after triage. They concluded that further research was needed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of digital triage tools and service delivery.
Other considerations: The authors of the review did not discuss their findings in the context of issues relating to health equity. They stated that issues such as age, gender, and ethnicity were not explored in depth by the studies that they had found.
This summary was prepared by Joly Ghanawi, checked by Surya Ramachandran, and finalized by William Summerskill.