Teletriage programs tend to reduce emergency room visits

December 15, 2003

OTTAWA — Based on a survey of Canadian teletriage centres, or nursing call centres, four provinces showed a trend to reducing the number of non-urgent visits to emergency rooms. In addition, user satisfaction of the teletriage services across Canadian programs was very high. These are some conclusions in a new report released by the Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment (CCOHTA).

CCOHTA surveyed teletriage programs funded by provincial and territorial governments to gather data on teletriage in Canada. CCOHTA also conducted a systematic review of the international literature to evaluate the clinical and economic impact of teletriage programs. Seven provinces offer a province-wide, 24/7 nursing teletriage program, and the remaining jurisdictions are considering offering this service, although there is very little Canadian evidence of their effectiveness. Evaluations from five provinces showed conflicting results of the impact of teletriage services on the use of physician visits or walk-in clinics.

While information from Canadian programs was insufficient to comment on the impact of teletriage services on patient safety, CCOHTA’s systematic review of ten studies from the US and UK concluded that teletriage for health problems decreases immediate visits to physicians without increasing adverse outcomes such as subsequent hospitalizations, visits to emergency departments or deaths. These studies also found that about half of the calls could be managed by phone rather than by in person visits. The impact on immediate visits to emergency departments and subsequent visits to physicians was less clear in these studies.

No published Canadian studies were found examining the impact of teletriage services on costs in the health care system. Three studies from the UK and US, which have very different health care systems from Canada, show that costs are saved for after-hour teletriage services by diverting patients from emergency and physician visits.

CCOHTA is an independent not-for-profit organization that provides unbiased, reliable information about health technologies. CCOHTA delivers a health technology assessment program and the Common Drug Review. CCOHTA is funded by the Canadian federal, provincial and territorial governments.

For more information contact:
Kirk Fergusson: Director, Communications