Trial reportScandinavian journal of primary health care2019
Giving callers the option to bypass the telephone waiting line in out-of-hours services: a comparative intervention study.
Trial report in Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- How parents express their worry in calls to a medical helpline: a mixed methods study.BMC primary care · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Do callers to out-of-hours care misuse an option to jump the phone queue?Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2019Trial
- Evaluation of the performance of telephone triage service.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Strengthening the WHO Emergency Care Systems Framework: insights from an integrated, patient-centered approach in the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services system-a qualitative system analysis.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Identification of emergencies in the telephone queue and routing to a fast track (FAST): study protocol for a prospective, two-armed cohort study.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Identifying performance indicators to measure overall performance of telephone triage - a scoping review.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Self-rated worry is associated with hospital admission in out-of-hours telephone triage - a prospective cohort study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2020Article
- Acute care pathways for patients calling the out-of-hours services.BMC health services research · 2020Observational
- Sociodemographic Characteristics Associated with Contacts to Emergency Medical Services and Out-of-Hours Primary Care: An Observational Study of 2.3 Million Citizens.Clinical epidemiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveAcute out-of-hours (OOH) healthcare is challenged by potentially long waiting time for callers in acute need of medical aid. OOH callers must usually wait in line, even when contacting for highly urgent or life-threatening conditions. We tested an emergency access button (EAB), which allowed OOH callers to bypass the waiting line if they perceived their health problem as severe. We aimed to investigate EAB use and patient characteristics associated with this use.
designComparative intervention study.
settingOOH services in two major Danish healthcare regions.
interventionGiving callers the option to bypass the telephone waiting line by introducing an EAB.
participantsOOH service callers contacting during end of October to mid-December 2017.
main outcome measuresProportions of EAB use, waiting time and background information on participants in two settings differing on organisation structure, waiting time and triage personnel.
resultsIn total, 97,791 out of 158,784 callers (61.6%) chose to participate. The EAB was used 2905 times out of 97,791 (2.97%, 95%CI 2.86; 3.08). Patient characteristics associated with increased EAB use were male gender, higher age, low education, being retired, and increasing announced estimated waiting time. In one region, immigrants used the EAB more often than native Danish callers.
conclusionOnly about 3% of all callers chose to bypass the waiting line in the OOH service when given the option. This study suggests that the EAB could serve as a new and simple tool to reduce the waiting time for severely ill patients in an OOH service telephone triage setting. Key Points Acute out-of-hours healthcare is challenged by overcrowding and increasing demand for services. This study shows that only approximately 3% of callers chose to bypass the telephone waiting queue when given the opportunity through an emergency access button. An emergency access button may serve as a new tool to help reduce the triage waiting time for severely ill patients in out-of-hours medical facilities.
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