Observational studyThe European journal of general practice2024
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the accuracy of telephone triage of callers with shortness of breath and/or chest discomfort in Dutch out-of-hours primary care: A retrospective observational study.
Observational study in The European journal of general practice, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Performance of the Dutch Triage standard in managing fever in children in out-of-hours primary care: a secondary analysis of the chili study.Family practice · 2026Article
- Accuracy of urgency allocation in patients with shortness of breath calling out-of-hours primary care: a cross-sectional study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundAnecdotal reports suggest that missed diagnosis in general practice during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a drop in life-threatening events (LTEs) detected in hospitals.
objectivesTo investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the accuracy of urgency allocation by telephone triage of patients with shortness of breath and/or chest discomfort in out-of-hours primary care (OHS-PC). Accuracy is defined as the correct allocation of high urgency to patients with LTEs and low urgency to those without.
methodsRetrospective observational study with data from callers contacting OHS-PC for shortness of breath and/or chest discomfort, between 1 March and 1 June 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 1 March to 1 June 2020 (first wave COVID-19 pandemic). Sensitivity and specificity of telephone urgency allocation were compared during both periods with LTEs, including acute coronary syndrome, and pulmonary embolism, as the reference.
results3,064 adults (1,840 COVID-19 pandemic and 1,224 pre-pandemic,
conclusionDespite a surge in calls from adults with shortness of breath and/or chest discomfort during the COVID-19 pandemic, the accuracy of telephone triage for LTEs in OHS-PC remained similar to the pre-pandemic era. Improvement of telephone triage seems necessary in both periods.
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