BACKGROUND The use of nurses for telephone-based triage in out-of-hours services is increasing in several countries. No investigations have been carried out in Norway into the quality of decisions made by nurses regarding our priority degree system. There are three levels: acute, urgent and non-urgent. METHODS Nurses working in seven casualty clinics in out-of-hours districts in Norway (The W...

PURPOSE This study explored which health care providers could be involved in centralized intake for patients with nonspecific low back pain to enhance access, continuity, and appropriateness of care. METHODS We reviewed the scope of practice regulations for a range of health care providers. We also conducted telephone interviews with 17 individuals representing ten provincial colleges and reg...

BACKGROUND Middle-aged and older patients are prominent users of telephone triage services for timely access to health information and appropriate referrals. Non-compliance with advice to seek appropriate care could potentially lead to poorer health outcomes among those patients. It is imperative to assess the extent to which middle-aged and older patients follow triage advice and how this vari...

Same-day appointment requests are common and can be problematic for general practices that run appointment systems. In a questionnaire survey sent to 90 general practices in one health authority area (response rate 88%), a variety of management systems existed for dealing with same-day appointment requests. Managing the requests was found to be a significant cause of stress for many general pra...

Background. Telemedicine is defined as “the use of electronic information and communications technologies to provide support health care when participants are separated” (Field M.J., 1998). The range from standard telephone audio consultations virtual reality scenarios. accelerated uptake telemedicine during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has resulted in valuable experience evidence on d...

Introduction: Triage is a response to the problem of overcrowdingin Emergency Departments (EDs) and accuracy of decisions madeby the triage unit affects the ultimate outcome of EDs. This studywas conducted to evaluate the knowledge of triage among lastyear medical students in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytical study whose subjectswere all the sen...