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Telephone counselling and the tendency to seek care from a physical care provider

Healthcare counselling can be provided remotely via telephone by a nurse. The nurse can during the call assess the condition in question, provide support and sometimes give self-care advice, as well as referring the patients to the right care institution. Healthcare counselling by telephone also aims to reduce the pressure on the clinics, in terms of number of office visits.

Reading time approx. 10 minutes Published: Publication type:

SBU Enquiry Service

Consists of structured literature searches to highlight studies that can address questions received by the SBU Enquiry Service from Swedish healthcare or social service providers. We assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews and when needed also quality and transferability of results in health economic studies. Relevant references are compiled by an SBU staff member, in consultation with an external expert when needed.

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Published: Report no: ut201923 Registration no: SBU 2019/313

Question

What systematic reviews are there on the effect of telephone counseling on the patients' tendency to seek care from a physical care provider?

Table with identified studies

Table 1. Systematic reviews with low/medium risk of bias
Included studies Population/Intervention Outcome
Lake et al 2017 [2]
10 systematic reviews including 5 on health service utilisation Telephone based triage and advice services (excluding reviews which were related only to the use of telephone advice for a specific population) Effect: Access, appropriateness, patient compliance, patient satisfaction, cost, safety, health service utilisation, clinical workload and clinical outcomes
Authors' conclusion:
“Patient satisfaction with Telephone triage and advice services (TTAS) was generally high and there is some consistency of evidence of the ability of TTAS to reduce clinical workload. Measures of the safety of TTAS tended to show that there is no major difference between TTAS and traditional care.

Taken as a whole, current evidence does not provide definitive answers to questions about the quality of care provided, access and equity of the service, its costs and outcomes. The available evidence also suggests that there are many interactional factors (e.g., relationship with other health service providers) which can impact on measures of performance, and also affect the external validity of the research findings.”

References

  1. Lake R, Georgiou A, Li J, Ling L, Byrne M, Robinson M, et al. The quality, safety and governance of telephone triage and advice services - an overview of evidence from systematic reviews. BMC Health Services Research 2017;17:1-10.

Literature search

PubMed via NLM 2019-06-03
Effect of telephone nursing on healthcare use
The search result, usually found at the end of the documentation, forms the list of abstracts. [MeSH] = Term from the Medline controlled vocabulary, including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; [MeSH:NoExp] = Does not include terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; [MAJR] = MeSH Major Topic; [TIAB] = Title or abstract; [TI] = Title; [AU] = Author; [TW] = Text Word; Systematic[SB] = Filter for retrieving systematic reviews; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
  Search terms Items found
Intervention:
1. ((((((((Telemedicine[MeSH Terms]) OR Distance Counseling[MeSH Terms])) OR (”tele consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR ”tele consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR ”telephone consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR ”telephone consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR ”phone consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR ”phone consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR ”phone-based consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR ”phone-based consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR ”tele-based consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR ”tele-based consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR ”telephone-based consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR ”telephone-based consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR “telehealth”[Title/Abstract] OR “tele counceling”[Title/Abstract] OR “tele councelling”[Title/Abstract] OR “telephone counceling”[Title/Abstract] OR “telephone councelling”[Title/Abstract] OR “phone counceling”[Title/Abstract] OR “phone councelling”[Title/Abstract] OR “phone-based counceling”[Title/Abstract] OR “phone-based councelling”[Title/Abstract] OR “telephone-based counceling”[Title/Abstract] OR “telephone-based councelling”[Title/Abstract] OR “tele-based counceling”[Title/Abstract] OR “tele-based councelling”[Title/Abstract] OR “remote counselling”[Title/Abstract] OR “remote counseling”[Title/Abstract] OR ”remote consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR ”remote consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR “distance consultation”[Title/Abstract] OR “distance consultations”[Title/Abstract] OR “distance counseling”[Title/Abstract] OR “distance counselling”[Title/Abstract] OR telenursing[Title/Abstract] OR “telephone nursing”[Title/Abstract] OR “phone-based nursing”[Title/Abstract] OR ”tele-based nursing”[Title/Abstract] OR ”telephone-based nursing”[Title/Abstract]))) 27 354
Outcome:
2. (("Patient Admission"[Mesh] OR "Office Visits"[Mesh] OR visit*[Title/Abstract] OR access*[Title/Abstract] OR use[Title/Abstract] OR admission*[Title/Abstract] OR seek*[Title/Abstract] OR workload[Title/Abstract] OR utili*[Title/Abstract] OR impact*[Title/Abstract] OR "care-seeker"[Title/Abstract] OR "care-seekers"[Title/Abstract] OR "care-seeking"[Title/Abstract] OR "care seeker"[Title/Abstract] OR "care seekers"[Title/Abstract] OR "care seeking"[Title/Abstract] OR health-seek*[Title/Abstract] OR "health seeker"[Title/Abstract] OR "health seekers"[Title/Abstract] OR "health seeking"[Title/Abstract] OR "patient behaviour"[Title/Abstract] OR "patient behaviours"[Title/Abstract] OR "patient behavior"[Title/Abstract] OR "patient behaviors"[Title/Abstract] OR "patient action"[Title/Abstract] OR "patient actions"[Title/Abstract])) AND ("healthcare"[Title/Abstract] OR "health care"[Title/Abstract] OR "health service"[Title/Abstract] OR "health services"[Title/Abstract] OR "health facility"[Title/Abstract] OR "health facilities"[Title/Abstract]) 213 937
Combined sets:
3. 1 AND 2 4 028
Study types:
4. Systematic[sb] 134 374
5. ((clinical[Title/Abstract] AND trial[Title/Abstract]) OR clinical trials[MeSH Terms] OR clinical trial[Publication Type] OR random*[Title/Abstract] OR random allocation[MeSH Terms] OR therapeutic use[MeSH Subheading]) 5 241 420
6. ((((("Economics"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Costs and Cost Analysis"[Mesh] OR "Economics, Dental"[Mesh] OR "Economics, Hospital"[Mesh] OR "Economics, Medical"[Mesh] OR "Economics, Nursing"[Mesh] OR "Economics, Pharmaceutical"[Mesh] OR economic*[Title/Abstract] OR cost[Title/Abstract] OR costs[Title/Abstract] OR costly[Title/Abstract] OR costing[Title/Abstract] OR price[Title/Abstract] OR prices[Title/Abstract] OR pricing[Title/Abstract] OR pharmacoeconomic*[Title/Abstract] OR "health economy"[Title/Abstract] OR "health economics"[Title/Abstract] OR "value for money"[Title/Abstract] OR budget*[Title/Abstract] OR (expenditure*[Title/Abstract] NOT energy[Title/Abstract])) NOT (energy cost[Title/Abstract] OR oxygen cost[Title/Abstract] OR metabolic cost[Title/Abstract] OR energy expenditure[Title/Abstract] OR oxygen expenditure[Title/Abstract]))))) 876 776
Final sets:
7. 3 AND 4 (systematic reviews) 1 835
8. 3 AND 5 (clinical trials) 789
9. 3 AND 6 (health economics) 1 412

 

Cochrane Library via Wiley 2019-06-03
Effect of telephone nursing on healthcare use
The search result, usually found at the end of the documentation, forms the list of abstracts. au = Author; MeSH = Term from the Medline controlled vocabulary, including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; this term only = Does not include terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; :ti = Title; :ab = Abstract; :kw = Keyword; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
  Search terms Items found
Intervention:
1. MeSH descriptor: [Telemedicine] explode all trees 2 096
2. MeSH descriptor: [Distance Counseling] explode all trees 10
3. OR 2 2 104
4. ”tele consultation” OR ”tele consultations” OR ”telephone consultation” OR ”telephone consultations” OR ”phone consultation” OR ”phone consultations” OR ”phone-based consultation” OR ”phone-based consultations” OR ”tele-based consultation” OR ”tele-based consultations” OR ”telephone-based consultation” OR ”telephone-based consultations” OR “telehealth” OR “tele counceling” OR “tele councelling” OR “telephone counceling” OR “telephone councelling” OR “phone counceling” OR “phone councelling” OR “phone-based counceling” OR “phone-based councelling” OR “telephone-based counceling” OR “telephone-based councelling” OR “tele-based counceling” OR “tele-based councelling” OR “remote counselling” OR “remote counseling” OR ”remote consultation” OR ”remote consultations” OR “distance consultation” OR “distance consultations” OR “distance counseling” OR “distance counselling” OR telenursing OR “telephone nursing” OR “phone-based nursing” OR ”tele-based nursing” OR ”telephone-based nursing”:ti,ab,kw 1 998
5. 3 OR 4 3 481
Outcome:
6. MeSH descriptor: [Patient Admission] explode all trees 561
7. MeSH descriptor: [Office Visits] explode all trees 441
8. 6 OR 7 999
9. visit* OR access* OR use OR admission* OR seek* OR workload OR utili* OR impact* OR “care-seeker” OR “care-seekers” OR “care-seeking” OR "care seeker" OR "care seekers" OR "care seeking" OR health-seek* OR "health seeker" OR "health seekers" OR "health seeking" OR "patient behaviour" OR "patient behaviours" OR "patient behavior" OR "patient behaviors" OR "patient action" OR "patient actions":ti,ab,kw 1 115 225
10. 8 OR 9 1 115 225
11. “healthcare” OR “health care” OR “health service” OR “health services” OR “health facility” OR “health facilities”:ti,ab,kw 84 602
Final 5 AND 10 AND 11
Cochrane reviews: 99
Cochrane Protocols: 27
Trials: 1420
Editorials: 1
Clinical answers: 1		 1 548

 

CINAHL via ebsco.com 2019-06-03
Effect of telephone nursing on healthcare use
The search result, usually found at the end of the documentation, forms the list of abstracts. AB = Abstract; AU = Author; DE = Term from the thesaurus; MM = Major Concept; TI = Title; TX = All Text. Performs a keyword search of all the database's searchable fields; ZC = Methodology Index; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
  Search terms Items found
Intervention:
1. (MH "Telemedicine+") 11 037
2. TX ”tele consultation” OR ”tele consultations” OR ”telephone consultation” OR ”telephone consultations” OR ”phone consultation” OR ”phone consultations” OR ”phone-based consultation” OR ”phone-based consultations” OR ”tele-based consultation” OR ”tele-based consultations” OR ”telephone-based consultation” OR ”telephone-based consultations” OR “telehealth” OR “tele counceling” OR “tele councelling” OR “telephone counceling” OR “telephone councelling” OR “phone counceling” OR “phone councelling” OR “phone-based counceling” OR “phone-based councelling” OR “telephone-based counceling” OR “telephone-based councelling” OR “tele-based counceling” OR “tele-based councelling” OR “remote counselling” OR “remote counseling” OR ”remote consultation” OR ”remote consultations” OR “distance consultation” OR “distance consultations” OR “distance counseling” OR “distance counselling” OR telenursing OR “telephone nursing” OR “phone-based nursing” OR ”tele-based nursing” OR ”telephone-based nursing” 16 001
3. 1 OR 2 23 949
Outcome:
4. (MH "Patient Admission") OR (MH "Office Visits") 20 330
5. TX visit* OR access* OR use OR admission* OR seek* OR workload OR utili* OR impact* OR “care-seeker” OR “care-seekers” OR “care-seeking” OR "care seeker" OR "care seekers" OR "care seeking" OR health-seek* OR "health seeker" OR "health seekers" OR "health seeking" OR "patient behaviour" OR "patient behaviours" OR "patient behavior" OR "patient behaviors" OR "patient action" OR "patient actions" 2 137 985
6. 4 OR 5 2 137 985
7. MH "Health Services+" 885 886
8. TX “healthcare” OR “health care” OR “health service” OR “health services” OR “health facility” OR “health facilities” 1 290 529
9. 7 OR 8 1 803 293
Study types:
10. (MH "Systematic Review") OR (MH "Meta Analysis") 90 247
11. TX (systematic* AND review*) OR "meta-analysis" OR "meta analysis" 295 622
12. 10 OR 11 295 622
13. (MH "Randomized Controlled Trials+") OR (MH "Random Sample+") OR (MH "Clinical Trials+") 315 637
14. TX random* OR randomized OR randomised 484 274
15. 13 OR 14 584 026
16. (MH "Economics") OR (MH "Costs and Cost Analysis+") OR (MH "Economics, Pharmaceutical") 113 688
17. TX economic* OR cost OR costs OR costly OR costing OR price OR prices OR pricing OR pharmacoeconomic* OR "health economy" OR "health economics" OR "value for money" OR budget* OR (expenditure* NOT energy) 466 778
18. 16 OR 17 469 013
Final sets:
19. 3 AND 6 AND 9 AND 12 (systematic reviews) 2 119
20. 3 AND 6 AND 9 AND 15 (clinical trials) 2 600
21. 3 AND 6 AND 9 AND 18 (health economics) 5 944

Project group

Nathalie Peira, Laura Lintamo, Sara Fundell and Miriam Entesarian Matsson at SBU.

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