Satisfaction and patient outcomes of a telephone-based nurse triage service.

PURPOSE Describe patient satisfaction and patient-reported outcomes after voluntary use of a telephone-based nurse triage service. METHODS A random sample of symptomatic callers who contacted the triage service in 1999 was identified. A computer-assisted telephone survey was conducted, resulting in a response rate of 58.9 percent and a sample size of 35,374. SUMMARY Overall satisfaction with the service was 90.4 percent and did not vary greatly when stratified by demographic and health status characteristics. Of all callers who reported following the triage recommendation to use self-care instructions while monitoring the condition for change (n = 12,037), 11.5 percent scheduled an office visit and 1.5 percent used hospital emergency-room (ER) services for further care. CONCLUSIONS Overall satisfaction with telephone-based nurse triage services was high and did not vary substantially by caller characteristics.