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Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient?

BACKGROUND: Since the start of out-of-hours (OOH) primary care clinics, the number of patient consultations has been increasing. Triage plays an important role in patient selection for a consultation, and in providing reassurance and self-management advice. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate whether...

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Autores principales: Verzantvoort, Natascha C. M., Teunis, Teun, Verheij, Theo J. M., van der Velden, Alike W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6019095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29944708
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199284
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author Verzantvoort, Natascha C. M.
Teunis, Teun
Verheij, Theo J. M.
van der Velden, Alike W.
author_facet Verzantvoort, Natascha C. M.
Teunis, Teun
Verheij, Theo J. M.
van der Velden, Alike W.
author_sort Verzantvoort, Natascha C. M.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Since the start of out-of-hours (OOH) primary care clinics, the number of patient consultations has been increasing. Triage plays an important role in patient selection for a consultation, and in providing reassurance and self-management advice. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate whether the smartphone application “Should I see a doctor?” (in Dutch:”moet ik naar de dokter?”) could guide patients in appropriate consultation at OOH clinics by focusing on four topics: 1) app usage, 2) user satisfaction, 3) whether the app provides the correct advice, and 4) whether users intend to follow the advice. DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective, cross-sectional study amongst app users in a routine primary care setting. METHODS: The app is a self-triage tool for acute primary care. A built-in questionnaire asked users about the app’s clarity, their satisfaction and whether they intended to follow the app’s advice (n = 4456). A convenience sample of users was phoned by a triage nurse (reference standard) to evaluate whether the app’s advice corresponded with the outcome of the triage call (n = 126). Suggestions of phoned participants were listed. RESULTS: The app was used by patients of all ages, also by parents for their children, and mostly for abdominal pain, skin disorders and cough. 58% of users received the advice to contact the clinic, 34% a self-care advice and 8% to wait-and-see. 65% of users intended to follow the app’s advice. The app was rated as ‘neutral’ to ‘very clear’ by 87%, and 89% were ‘neutral’ to ‘very satisfied’. In 81% of participants the app’s advice corresponded to the triage call outcome, with sensitivity, specificity, positive- and negative predictive values of 84%, 74%, 88% and 67%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The app “Should I see a doctor?” could be a valuable tool to guide patients in contacting the OOH primary care clinic for acute care. To further improve the app’s safety and efficiency, triaging multiple symptoms should be facilitated, and more information should be provided to patients receiving a wait-and-see advice.
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spelling pubmed-60190952018-07-07 Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient? Verzantvoort, Natascha C. M. Teunis, Teun Verheij, Theo J. M. van der Velden, Alike W. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Since the start of out-of-hours (OOH) primary care clinics, the number of patient consultations has been increasing. Triage plays an important role in patient selection for a consultation, and in providing reassurance and self-management advice. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate whether the smartphone application “Should I see a doctor?” (in Dutch:”moet ik naar de dokter?”) could guide patients in appropriate consultation at OOH clinics by focusing on four topics: 1) app usage, 2) user satisfaction, 3) whether the app provides the correct advice, and 4) whether users intend to follow the advice. DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective, cross-sectional study amongst app users in a routine primary care setting. METHODS: The app is a self-triage tool for acute primary care. A built-in questionnaire asked users about the app’s clarity, their satisfaction and whether they intended to follow the app’s advice (n = 4456). A convenience sample of users was phoned by a triage nurse (reference standard) to evaluate whether the app’s advice corresponded with the outcome of the triage call (n = 126). Suggestions of phoned participants were listed. RESULTS: The app was used by patients of all ages, also by parents for their children, and mostly for abdominal pain, skin disorders and cough. 58% of users received the advice to contact the clinic, 34% a self-care advice and 8% to wait-and-see. 65% of users intended to follow the app’s advice. The app was rated as ‘neutral’ to ‘very clear’ by 87%, and 89% were ‘neutral’ to ‘very satisfied’. In 81% of participants the app’s advice corresponded to the triage call outcome, with sensitivity, specificity, positive- and negative predictive values of 84%, 74%, 88% and 67%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The app “Should I see a doctor?” could be a valuable tool to guide patients in contacting the OOH primary care clinic for acute care. To further improve the app’s safety and efficiency, triaging multiple symptoms should be facilitated, and more information should be provided to patients receiving a wait-and-see advice. Public Library of Science 2018-06-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6019095/ /pubmed/29944708 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199284 Text en © 2018 Verzantvoort et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Verzantvoort, Natascha C. M.
Teunis, Teun
Verheij, Theo J. M.
van der Velden, Alike W.
Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient?
title Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient?
title_full Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient?
title_fullStr Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient?
title_full_unstemmed Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient?
title_short Self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: Practical, safe and efficient?
title_sort self-triage for acute primary care via a smartphone application: practical, safe and efficient?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6019095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29944708
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199284
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