Telehealth triage ‘not safe’ for chest pain: study

Findings from a Dutch out-of-hours service shows phone triage underestimates the condition in more than one quarter of patients

GP out-of-hours phone triage systems for chest pain are neither safe nor efficient, a Dutch study suggests. 

The researchers found the system underestimated the urgency of chest pain in more than one quarter of patients whose pain later proved to be either acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or another life-threatening event.