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.

Background: Anecdotal 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.

Objectives: To 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.

The Role of Language in Remote Healthcare Triage: A Meta-Aggregative Review.

Aim(s): To provide an overview of evidence on the role of language in remote healthcare services prioritisation, from now on termed triage. This study synthesises literature, to better understand how language affects triage interactions, aiming to improve these processes.

Design: We conducted a meta-aggregative review.

Diabetes and risk of acute coronary syndrome in callers with chest discomfort: Cross-sectional study in out-of-hours primary care.

Aims: We investigated the differences in prevalence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) by presence versus absence of diabetes in males and females with chest discomfort who called out-of-hours primary care (OHS-PC).

Methods: A cross-sectional study performed in the Netherlands. Patients who called the OHS-PC in the Utrecht region, the Netherlands between 2014 and 2017 with acute chest discomfort were included.

Accuracy of urgency allocation in patients with shortness of breath calling out-of-hours primary care: a cross-sectional study.

Background: In out-of-hours primary care (OHS-PC), semi-automatic decision support tools are often used during telephone triage. In the Netherlands, the Netherlands Triage Standard (NTS) is used. The NTS is mainly expert-based and evidence on the diagnostic accuracy of the NTS' urgency allocation against clinically relevant outcomes for patients calling with shortness of breath (SOB) is lacking.

Development and validation of a prediction rule for patients suspected of acute coronary syndrome in primary care: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: To develop and validate a symptom-based prediction rule for early recognition of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in patients with acute chest discomfort who call out-of-hours services for primary care (OHS-PC).

Design: Cross-sectional study. A diagnostic prediction rule was developed with multivariable regression analyses.

Gender-stratified analyses of symptoms associated with acute coronary syndrome in telephone triage: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To identify clinical variables that are associated with the diagnosis acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in women and men with chest discomfort who contact out-of-hours primary care (OHS-PC) by telephone, and to explore whether there are indications whether these variables differ among women and men.

Design: Cross-sectional study in which we compared patient and call characteristics of triage call recordings between women with and without ACS, and men with and without ACS.

Setting: Nine OHS-PC in the Netherlands.

Pilot study on identification of incidents in healthcare transitions and concordance between medical records and patient interview data.

Objective: To investigate whether transitional incidents can be identified from the medical records of the general practitioners and the hospital and to assess the concordance of transitional incidents between medical records and patient interviews.

Design: A pilot study.

Setting: The study was conducted in 2 regions in the Netherlands: a rural and an urban region.