ArticlePloS one2021
Impact of a telephone triage service for non-critical emergencies in Switzerland: A cross-sectional study.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 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.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Symptom-Checker for Adult Patients Visiting an Interdisciplinary Emergency Care Center and the Safety of Patient Self-Triage: Real-Life Prospective Evaluation.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Trial
- Evaluation of the performance of telephone triage service.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Addressing the overuse of hospital emergency departments in the Portuguese NHS: a new paradigm.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Telephone Referral to a Paediatric Emergency Department: Why Do Parents Not Show Up?Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionTelephone triage services (TTS) play an increasing role in the delivery of healthcare. The objective of this study was to characterize the adult users of a TTS for non-critical emergencies, describe the types of advice given and their subsequent observation, and assess the influence of TTS on the use of the healthcare system in a sanitary region of Switzerland.
methodsData from a TTS based in the French part of Switzerland were analyzed. This service consists of a medical contact center for non-critical emergencies, with trained nurses available 24/7. A random selection of 2,034 adult calls was performed between July and December 2018. Research students contacted users 2 to 4 weeks after the initial call and assessed sociodemographic and clinical data, as well as the impact of the advice received on the use of the healthcare system.
resultsA sample of 412 users was included in the analyses. The average age was 49.0 (SD 20.4) years; 68.5% were women and 72.8% of Swiss origin. The two main recommendations provided by nurses were to consult the emergency department (ED) (44.6%, n = 184) and to contact a physician on duty (33.2%, n = 137). The majority of users followed the advice given by the nurses (substantial agreement [k = 0.79] with consulting the ED and perfect agreement [k = 0.87] with contacting a physician on duty). We calculated that calling the TTS could decrease the intention to visit the ED by 28.1%.
conclusionTTS for non-critical emergencies have the potential to decrease the use of ED services.
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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.