Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the National Telehealth Service for triage and referral in Sweden: a national retrospective observational study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Telehealth, the provision of healthcare through digital communication, has been proposed as a potential solution to meet the increasing demand for healthcare, particularly in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sweden has an established national telehealth service for triage and referral by phone (1177) since 2013 which has the potential to meet this increasing demand. However, little is known about the development and retention in demand during and after the pandemic in Sweden. The objective of this study was to investigate the utilisation of the national telehealth service in Sweden before, during and after the pandemic in relation to emergency department (ED) visits.

Methods

This was a retrospective observational study of telephone calls to the national teleh

SUBMITTER: Berg J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11624787 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature