title: [Paediatric emergency triage in Spanish primary care using mobile phones. Analysis of a model in a health area].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To conduct a pilot study of telephone consultation in the paediatric population of an urban health centre. To evaluate the telephone consultation as an effective tool when it comes to exercising prior triage of patients requiring urgent attention.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted in two phases. In the first, data were collected from all calls received for six months. In a second phase, we conducted a telephone intervention study to analyse what a random sample of users remembered of the care provided. All those who requested a telephone consultation were included in the study. Demographic, social-welfare, epidemiological, and clinical features, of each patient were recorded. Data were processed using a statistical package SPSS version 17.0 for Windows.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 439 telephone inquiries in our pilot project, of which 35.1% were attended by residents, 36% by paediatricians, and 28.9% by paediatric nurses. There were more telephone calls in the afternoons and on weekends. Patients less than or equal to 2 years accounted for 57.9% of cases handled, and there were no differences between sexes. The most frequent reasons for consultation were gastrointestinal symptoms, fever and respiratory problems. The health problem was resolved in 85.8% of cases, requiring only home care instructions, and only 13.3% of children were referred to emergency services. We obtained a mean score of satisfaction of 9.2.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The pilot project had a high level of satisfaction and resolution, demonstrating cost savings by reducing 55% of face to face visits, with a saving of 35.2 euros per telephone consultation. A teleconsultation model for dealing with emergencies in primary care by telephone would be comparable to a practice staffed by trained paediatric nurses.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Salud de Peñafiel, Gerencia de Atención Primaria, Valladolid Este, España. cristinaderibera@hotmail.com
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: García de Ribera
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bachiller Luque
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vázquez Fernández
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Barrio Alonso
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hernández Velázquez
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hernández Vázquez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D040421:Cell Phone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011320:Primary Health Care; D019114:Remote Consultation; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods*