Lucero-Obusan Cynthia, Winston Carla A, Schirmer Patricia L, Oda Gina, Holodniy Mark
1 US Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Quality Safety and Value, Public Health Surveillance and Research Group, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
2 Division of Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Public Health Rep. 2017 Jul/Aug;132(1_suppl):16S-22S. doi: 10.1177/0033354917709779.
Telephone triage (TT) is a method whereby medical professionals speak by telephone to patients to assess their symptoms or health concerns and offer advice. These services are often administered through an electronic TT system, which guides TT professionals during the encounter through the use of structured protocols and algorithms to help determine the severity of the patients' health issue and refer them to appropriate care. TT is also an emerging data source for public health surveillance of infectious and noninfectious diseases, including influenza. We calculated Spearman correlation coefficients to compare the weekly number of US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) TT calls with other conventional influenza measures for the 2011-2012 through 2014-2015 influenza seasons, for which there were a total of 35 666 influenza-coded TT encounters. Influenza-coded calls were strongly correlated with weekly VA influenza-coded hospitalizations (0.85), emergency department visits (0.90), influenza-like illness outpatient visits (0.92), influenza tests performed (0.86), positive influenza tests (0.82), and influenza antiviral prescriptions (0.89). The correlation between VA-TT and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) national data for weekly influenza hospitalizations, influenza tests performed, and positive influenza tests was also strong. TT correlates well with VA health care use and CDC data and is a timely data source for monitoring influenza activity.
电话分诊（TT）是一种医疗专业人员通过电话与患者交谈，以评估其症状或健康问题并提供建议的方法。这些服务通常通过电子TT系统进行管理，该系统在会诊期间通过使用结构化协议和算法来指导TT专业人员，以帮助确定患者健康问题的严重程度，并将他们转诊至适当的护理机构。TT也是包括流感在内的传染病和非传染病公共卫生监测的新兴数据源。我们计算了斯皮尔曼相关系数，以比较2011 - 2012年至2014 - 2015年流感季节美国退伍军人事务部（VA）TT电话的每周数量与其他常规流感指标，在此期间共有35666次编码为流感的TT会诊。编码为流感的电话与每周VA编码为流感的住院人数（0.85）、急诊就诊人数（0.90）、流感样疾病门诊就诊人数（0.92）、进行的流感检测（0.86）、流感检测呈阳性（0.82）以及流感抗病毒处方（0.89）密切相关。VA - TT与疾病控制和预防中心（CDC）每周流感住院人数、进行的流感检测以及流感检测呈阳性的全国数据之间的相关性也很强。TT与VA医疗保健使用情况和CDC数据相关性良好，是监测流感活动的及时数据源。
