Teletriage Pilot Study (Strategy for Unscheduled Teleconsultations): Results, Patient Acceptance and Satisfaction.

Non-urgent consultations to an Emergency Department (ED) contribute to overcrowding. Telecommunications represent a potential strategy to reduce some face-to-face consultations. OBJECTIVES: To describe characteristics of patients who used the Teletriage Program during the pilot study, to explore safety and to report user acceptance and satisfaction. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, including all adult patients affiliated to our health insurance attended to via this telemedicine service between January 18th and May 31st, 2019 (during pilot-study). Patients were followed-up for seven days to assess re-consultation to ED or unscheduled hospitalization. RESULTS: 276 effective consultations occurred, corresponding to 241 patients, with a mean of age of 50 years, 68% (189) were women. Chief complaints were related to clinical issues (70%) and remaining (30%) were administrative problems. Only four patients were suggested a referral or face-to-face assessment. Rate of re-consultation to the ED was 18% (51) at seven days of follow-up, and the rate of unscheduled hospitalization was <1% (2), both with good clinical evolution. Patient satisfaction was 72.73%, and regarding acceptability, 66.12% stated that without this channel they would have attended to a face-to-face consultation and 64.02% that they would do so if their needs remained unmet. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing this new communication channel could be a useful and safe strategy to reduce unnecessary non-urgent consultations to the ED.