Rationale and design of a cohort study evaluating triage of acute chest pain in out-of-hours primary care in the Netherlands (TRACE).

Rationale and design of a cohort study evaluating triage of acute chest pain in out-of-hours primary care in the Netherlands (TRACE). Prim Health Care Res Dev. 2020 May 08;21:e10 Authors: Manten A, Cuijpers CJJ, Rietveld R, Groot E, van de Graaf F, Voerman S, Himmelreich JCL, Lucassen WAM, van Weert HCPM, Harskamp RE Abstract The aims of this study are (1) to evaluate the performance of current triage for chest pain; (2) to describe the case mix of patients undergoing triage for chest pain; and (3) to identify opportunities to improve performance of current Dutch triage system for chest pain. Chest pain is a common symptom, and identifying patients with chest pain that require urgent care can be quite challenging. Making the correct assessment is even harder during telephone triage. Temporal trends show that the referral threshold has lowered over time, resulting in overcrowding of first responders and emergency services. While various stakeholders advocate for a more efficient triage system, careful evaluation of the performance of the current triage in primary care is lacking. TRiage of Acute Chest pain Evaluation in primary care (TRACE) is a large cohort study designed to describe the current Dutch triage system for chest pain and subsequently evaluate triage performance in regard to clinical outcomes. The study consists of consecutive patients who contacted the out-of-hours primary care facility with chest pain in the region of A...
Source: Primary Care - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Prim Health Care Res Dev Source Type: research