Using Video Transmission for Optimized Telephone Triage of Children With Fever at the Medical Helpline 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark

Detailed Summary

Background: The Medical Helpline 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark handles acute, non-life threatening medical emergencies. Approx. 200,000 calls/year concern children, and about 30% are referred to a pediatric urgent care center. However, most of these children have very mild symptoms, which require neither treatment nor tests, merely parental guidance. Initial assessment; triage, of children on the phone is difficult, especially when the operator does not know the child or family, and when it is difficult to describe the symptoms in medical terms. This may result in too many not-so-sick children and too few more severely sick children getting sent to hospital. Many parents are very worried about their sick child, but it is not known if this worry can be integrated in the triage process. Purpose: It will be studied if triage by video calls; video triage; provide greater security for parents and call operators so that more children can stay at home after medical guidance, causing at least 10% fewer visits to pediatric urgent care centers. The degree of worry of the parents will also be registered. Method: Children aged 3 months to 5 years with fever will be triaged by either video or telephone every other day, to compare the results between these to otherwise similar groups. Operators and parents answer surveys about their experiences. Yield: Video triage can "give eyes to the operators" and revolutionize telephone triage. The study may result in fewer children referred to hospitals, more appropriate use of resources and better experiences for the families.

Study Details

Timeline

Interventions