ArticlePrimary health care research & development2021
The implementation of the nationwide out-of-hours phone number 1733 in Belgium: analysis of efficiency and safety.
Article in Primary health care research & development, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Out-of-hours services in Zealand, Denmark. Consequences of changeover from GP-cooperative to integrated deputized services. A retrospective cohort study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the performance of telephone triage service.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Ambulance Use Appropriateness: Emergency Medical Service Technicians' and Triage Nurses' Assessments and Patients' Perceptions.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Identifying performance indicators to measure overall performance of telephone triage - a scoping review.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Identifying key items to be addressed by non-clinical operators to manage out-of-hours telephone triage services for older adults seeking non-urgent unplanned care in Belgium: an e-Delphi study.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- The feasibility of teleconsultations in unplanned primary care: an intervention study in Belgium, 2021.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2023Article
- Is tele-diagnosis of dental conditions reliable during COVID-19 pandemic? Agreement between tentative diagnosis via synchronous audioconferencing and definitive clinical diagnosis.Journal of dentistry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBelgium has a problem with inappropriate use of emergency services. The government installed the number 1733 for out-of-hours care. Through a dry run test, we learned that 30% of all calls were allocated to the protocol 'unclear problem'. In only 11.9% of all cases, there was an unclear problem.
methodsThe study aimed to determine whether the adjusted protocol 'unwell for no clear reason' led to a safer and more efficient referral and to evaluate the efficiency and safety of the primary care protocols (PCPs). The study ran in cross-sectional design involving patients, General Practitioner Cooperatives and telephone operators. A random sample of calls to 1733 and patient referrals were assessed on efficiency and safety.
resultsDuring 6 months in 2018, 11 622 calls to 1733 were registered. Seven hundred fifty-six of them were allocated to 'unwell for no clear reason', and a random sample of 180 calls was audited. To evaluate the PCPs, 202 calls were audited. The efficiency and safety of the protocol 'unwell for no clear reason' improved, and safety levels for under- and over-triage were not exceeded. The GP's judged that 9/10 of all patient encounters were correctly referred.
conclusionThis study demonstrated that the 1733-telephone triage system for out-of-hours care is successful if protocols, flow charts and emergency levels are well defined, monitored and operators are trained.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.