Introduction
’ worry, febrile, fever
SECONDARY
Telephone triage is used extensively during out-of-hours (OOH) healthcare and is a crucial tool in prioritizing both pre-hospital and in-hospital resources. Telephone triage is a challenging task, and children, the relatively most frequent group of callers, are inherently difficult to triage. This is mainly due to second-hand consultations via the parents, and the paucity of visual input, which complicates the assessment of the frequently unspecific symptoms in children [Furthermore, many parents have misconceptions about fever, such as dangerous side effects, measurement methods, the definition of fever, and how to manage it [Moreover, several studies have shown that non-verbal impressions such as tone of voice, breathing and pauses are a crucial part of call-handling [This present study investigated live video streaming (video triage) of febrile children at an OOH call-center. Previously, a study reported that video triage of young children with respiratory symptoms at the same call-center, was safe, feasible and acceptable to both parents and call-handlers [This present study investigated if the new triage tool video triage resulted in a higher proportion of patients staying at home the next 8 h after the call, while also identifying the most ill children and referring them to hospital. The study also investigated safety, feasibility and acceptability of video triage.Other secondary aims included if video triage reduced the parents’ DOW more than standard telephone triage, and if parental DOW was associated with the child being assessed at hospital. The study investigated parental DOW before and after call, and call-handlers’ DOW after the call. Moreover, secondary aims included an investigation of a possible reduction of the parents’ DOW when using video triage, and if the parental DOW was associated with the child being assessed at a hospital. As parental worry often is the reason for contacting healthcare services, it could potentially be of great interest if video triage could decrease parents’ worry, to prevent renewed contact and need of referral to hospital assessment.