Nurse triage for house call requests in a Tyneside general practice: patients' views and effect on doctor workload.

BACKGROUND

Demand for consultations in primary care has risen recently, necessitating a change in working practices. As part of this process, the possible contribution of practice nurses in the telephone assessment of home visit requests merits attention.

AIMS

To survey the views of our patients encountering our nurse triage system for home visit requests, set up in June 1995, and to plot its effect on the routine visiting workload of our doctors and thus their availability at the surgery.

METHOD

The outcome of each request was categorized as: doctor to visit (DV), surgery consultation with doctor (SC), nurse advice given and accepted (NA), or call passed to doctor for advice (DA). Frequency data from September 1995 to December 1996 were recovered. Questionnaires for self-completion were sent to all those requesting a routine weekday house call during two four-week periods in 1995 and 1996.

RESULTS

Analysable activity data revealed 1764 house call requests, with 41% DV, 18% SC, 24% NA, and 8% DA. In the first survey, 121 questionnaires were sent out and 84 returned (69% response rate) and, in the second, the corresponding figures were 113, 85, and 75%. About 80% of responders reported that they were satisfied with the help received from the nurse.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurse triage of house call requests has led to more efficient care for our patients, as we have increased the availability of surgery consultations by reducing the number of house calls made by our general practitioners.