How Does Triage by an Electronic Symptom Checker Match with Triage by a Nurse?

Stud Health Technol Inform

The Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, Finland.

Published: May 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • Omaolo© electronic symptom checkers (ESCs) are tools used in Finland to help triage primary health care patients by assessing their symptoms through a series of questions.
  • A study compared the results of the ESC with evaluations made by nurses, ensuring that nurses did not see the ESC results before their assessment.
  • The analysis of 825 cases revealed a 52.6% exact match between the ESC and nurse assessments, with 98.6% of the ESC assessments deemed "safe" compared to the nurses' evaluations.

Article Abstract

Omaolo© electronic symptom checkers (ESCs) have been developed to make triage for primary health care patients in Finland. Based on the analysis of the patient's responses to a set of questions, the ESC classifies him/her as emergent, urgent, not urgent, or advices on self-care. In this study the user answered the questions posed by the electronic symptom checker, after which a nurse assessed the urgency of the same user's symptom. The triage nurse was not allowed to know the result of the electronic symptom assessment until he or she had assessed the patient's condition. The level of triage was compared between ESC and nurse in each individual case. Findings from 825 individual cases were analyzed. The mean "exactly matched" for all symptom estimates was 52.6%. The mean "exactly matched" or "overconservative but suitable" for all symptom assessments was 66.6%. Safe assessments of electronic symptom checkers accounted for 98.6% of all assessments. A case was defined as "safe" if the recommendation for action given by the symptom assessment was at most one level less urgent than the nurse's triage assessment of the same case. The findings show that electronic symptom assessments are safe compared to the assessment of an experienced nurse.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/SHTI220528DOI Listing

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