ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners1998
Telephone triage of acute illness by a practice nurse in general practice: outcomes of care.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 1998. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effectiveness of registered nurses on patient outcomes in primary care: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2022Pooled it
- Effectiveness of registered nurses on system outcomes in primary care: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2022Pooled it
- Systematic review of recent innovations in service provision to improve access to primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2004Pooled it
- NHS Direct versus general practice based triage for same day appointments in primary care: cluster randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2004Trial
- The Use of Triage in Primary Care in the UK: An Integrative Review and Narrative Synthesis.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Review
- Impact of a telephone triage service for non-critical emergencies in Switzerland: A cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2021Article
- Medication-related calls received by a national telenursing triage and advice service in Australia: a retrospective cohort study.BMC health services research · 2017Article
- Article
- The role of oncology nurse navigators in facilitating continuity of care within the diagnostic phase for adult patients with lung cancer.Canadian oncology nursing journal = Revue canadienne de nursing oncologique · 2017Article
- Acceptability of NHS 111 the telephone service for urgent health care: cross sectional postal survey of users' views.Family practice · 2014Article
- Explaining quality of life of older people in the Netherlands using a multidimensional assessment of frailty.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2013Article
- From staff-mix to skill-mix and beyond: towards a systemic approach to health workforce management.Human resources for health · 2009Article
- Survey of the impact of nurse telephone triage on general practitioner activity.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2004Article
- Nurse telephone triage for same day appointments in general practice: multiple interrupted time series trial of effect on workload and costs.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2002Article
- Managing patient demand: a qualitative study of appointment making in general practice.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2001Article
- Impact of NHS direct on demand for immediate care: observational study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2000Article
- Telemedicine in the National Health Service.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 1998Article
- [Awareness of the Info-Sante CLSC telephone service by users of urgent care services].Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publiqueArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTelephone working is an increasingly important way of managing general practice workload, particularly out of hours. The role of telephone triage, however, in managing acute consultations during the day has not been adequately researched.
aimTo determine the impact of telephone triage, conducted by a practice nurse, on the management of same day consultations in a general practice.
methodA general practice of 11,300 patients in South Tyneside collected prospective telephone and surgery consultation data over three months. Patient satisfaction, for those who had received only telephone advice, was measured using a postal questionnaire. Four outcomes were measured: changes in doctor and nurse workload; repeat consultations with the same problem; prescriptions issued; and patient satisfaction with the service.
resultsIn three months, 1263 consultations were recorded. Doctor workload fell by 54%, from 1522 to 664 consultations, compared with the previous three months. A total of 325 (26%) telephone requests to see the doctor were managed by the nurse on the telephone without them visiting the surgery. Also, 273 (21%) patients saw the nurse in the surgery, 565 (45%) saw the doctor in the surgery, and 99 (8%) saw the doctor and the nurse in the surgery. The response rate to the postal questionnaire was 192/271 (71%); 154 (88%) were satisfied with nurse telephone advice.
conclusionsTelephone triage, by a practice nurse, of patients who wish to see the doctor on the same day, reduced doctor workload. This was a service that patients liked.
Indexed as
Identifiers
9667088PMC1410031What 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.