The Healthline pilot: call centre triage in New Zealand

To acquaint New Zealand doctorsabout nurse telephone triage using call centre technology, and to report the activities of Healthline, a pilot call centre telephone triage project in New Zealand.

Data for the second quarter of Healthline's activities are reported.

Healthline received about 100 calls a day, mostly after hours, and typically from symptomatic patients seeking health advice. Women and children were the most frequent users; Maori used the service in proportion to their representation in the population. Common symptoms were to those encountered in primary medical care. Requests for specific health information were usually about the health issues of the day Callers were more often directed to contact general practitioners than any other careproviders. The triage advice provided was often different from the caller's original intention about the timing and and ofcare they would have sought. Satisfaction with the service among Maori and non-Maori callers was high.

Healthline is providing a safe and acceptable primary care triage service in its pilot regions and appears to be meeting its first objective of providing timely and appropriate access to health advice and services.