Impact of telephone triage in managing patient demand for same-day appointments? A before-after study in a UK general practice

Jeffrey Chirk Fan Lau; Sadia Rashid

doi:10.3399/bjgp18X697361

Abstract

Background Telephone consultations are increasingly being utilised to manage patient demand for GP appointments. It’s true impact on patient care remains to be answered as existing evidence has shown mixed results.

Aim To report the impact of telephone triage on: number of face-to-face (F2F) appointments offered; unplanned re-consultations with GP or urgent care services within 24 hours; and total consultation duration per patient episode.

Method A retrospective cohort study in a single suburban practice in Kent, comparing outcomes between the new telephone triage and old walk-in F2F appointment systems in managing patient requests for same-day appointments. Data was sampled across 1 week, at 3-monthly intervals over each 12-month period before and after the system change-over in April 2016.

Results 1198 patient encounters matched the inclusion criteria. F2F appointments were offered to 34.7% of patients after telephone triage. Although unplanned re-consultations were four times more prevalent since the system changed compared to the previous year (P<0.001), no difference was seen between those consulted by telephone only, or offered a F2F appointment after telephone triage. Overall, patient consultations by telephone triage were 2.37 minutes shorter than consultations under its predecessor (P <0.001).

Conclusion Telephone triage was able to manage majority of patient problems by telephone alone, with significant reduction in consulting time per patient episode. Telephone consulting was not shown accountable for the increase in unplanned re-consultations.

Main menu

User menu

Search

Impact of telephone triage in managing patient demand for same-day appointments? A before-after study in a UK general practice

Abstract

In this issue

Citation Manager Formats

More in this TOC Section

Related Articles

Cited By...

NAVIGATE

RCGP

MY ACCOUNT

NEWS AND UPDATES

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

CUSTOMER SERVICES

CONTRIBUTE

CONTACT US

Main menu

User menu

Search

Impact of telephone triage in managing patient demand for same-day appointments? A before-after study in a UK general practice

Abstract

In this issue

Citation Manager Formats

Jump to section

More in this TOC Section

Related Articles

Cited By...

NAVIGATE

RCGP

MY ACCOUNT

NEWS AND UPDATES

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

CUSTOMER SERVICES

CONTRIBUTE

CONTACT US