Emergency medical services telephone referral program: an alternative approach to nonurgent 911 calls

Prehospital Emergency Care : Official Journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
W R SmithM Eisenberg

Abstract

To examine the effects of transferring nonurgent 911 calls to a telephone consulting nurse. It was hypothesized that the telephone referral program would result in fewer basic life support (BLS) responses with no adverse patient outcome or decrease in patient satisfaction. A two-phased prospective study was conducted in an urban and rural setting with a population of 650,000. During phase I, a BLS unit was dispatched on all calls and a nurse intervention was simulated. During phase II, no BLS unit was dispatched for calls meeting study criteria. Callers were transferred to the nurse, and consulting nurse protocols were used to direct care. Data were collected from dispatch, BLS, nurse, and hospital records and patient self-assessment. During phase I, 38 callers were transferred to the consulting nurse with no nurse intervention. During phase II, 133 cases were transferred to the nurse line. There were no adverse outcomes detected. The nurse recommended home care for 31%, physician referral for 24%, referral back to 911 for 17%, community resource for 11%, and other referral for 17%. Nurses contacted 85 patients for telephone follow-up. Ninety-four percent of the patients reported feeling better, 6% felt the same, and none felt ...Continue Reading

References

Apr 1, 1993·Annals of Emergency Medicine·E Brown, J Sindelar
Sep 1, 1996·Journal of Accident & Emergency Medicine·S SrinivasT J Underhill
Feb 3, 1999·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·J R Richards, S J Ferrall

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Citations

May 29, 2004·European Journal of Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine·Rolf Karlsten, Per Elowsson
May 3, 2014·Emergency Medicine Journal : EMJ·Kathryn EastwoodJohannes Stoelwinder
Dec 26, 2018·Prehospital Emergency Care : Official Journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors·Joanne CosterJanette Turner
Nov 17, 2015·Australian Health Review : a Publication of the Australian Hospital Association·Kathryn EastwoodJohannes Stoelwinder
Oct 29, 2015·Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice·Julii Suzanne BrainardAndy P Jones
Dec 2, 2017·Prehospital and Disaster Medicine·Karl A Sporer
Jun 6, 2009·Prehospital Emergency Care : Official Journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors·Hendrika MeischkeMickey Eisenberg

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