Urban Wisconsin pediatric patients using an after-hours telephone triage service: outcomes and compliance.

Objective: Evaluate the ability of a telephone triage service (TTS) to assess illness acuity of and patient compliance with advice given.

Design: Retrospective, observational study.

Patients: Patients of an urban, academic, pediatric clinic whose parents or caregivers called the TTS between July 23, 1997 and August 23, 1997.

Outcome Measures: Patient outcomes and visit information at related medical encounters subsequent to a TTS call.

Results: Patients were primarily African-American, under age 5, enrolled in a Medicaid HMO, and most often called for fever, HMO authorization, or asthma. Homecare and PED referrals were the two most frequent dispositions; overall compliance rate was 60%. No patient referred for non-emergent care required care on an urgent or emergent basis.

Conclusions: Initial results suggest that the TTS can effectively evaluate illness acuity in an urban population and compliance with advice is reasonable. A TTS may offer significant benefits to ensure care quality and contain costs in this population.