Evaluation of telephone first approach to demand management in English general practice: observational study.

ABSTRACT: Objective To evaluate a "telephone first" approach, in which all patients wanting to see a general practitioner (GP) are asked to speak to a GP on the phone before being given an appointment for a face to face consultation.Design Time series and cross sectional analysis of routine healthcare data, data from national surveys, and primary survey data.Participants 147 general practices adopting the telephone first approach compared with a 10% random sample of other practices in England.Intervention Management support for workload planning and introduction of the telephone first approach provided by two commercial companies.Main outcome measures Number of consultations, total time consulting (59 telephone first practices, no controls). Patient experience (GP

SUBMITTER: Newbould J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5615264 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature