From: Telephone consultations for general practice: a systematic review
Quality assessment | Summary of findings | Importance | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No of patients | Effect | Quality | ||||||||||
No of studies | Design | Limitations | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Telephone | Face-to-face | Difference (95% CI) | Absolute | ||
Doctor time/min (SD) | ||||||||||||
1a | Randomized trial | No serious limitations | NA | No serious indirectness | No serious imprecision | Publication bias a possibility | 181 | 187 | MD −1.5 (−2.4 to −0.6) | 1.5 min less per patient (from 36 s less to 2.4 min less) | HIGH | CRITICAL |
Subsequent GP contact (mean (SD), N) | ||||||||||||
1a | Randomized trial | No serious limitations | NA | No serious indirectness | Some imprecision | Publication bias a possibility | 182 | 188 | MD 0.2 (0.0 to 0.3) | 2 more visits per 10 people (from 3 more to no more) | HIGH | CRITICAL |
BP measured (n/N) | ||||||||||||
1a | Randomized trial | No serious limitations | NA | No serious indirectness | Some imprecision | Publication bias a possibility | 12/181 | 25/188 | RR 0.5 (0.26, 0.96) | 7 less BPs measured per 100 (from 13 less to 6 less) | HIGH | IMPORTANT |
Subsequent A&E contact (mean (SD), N) | ||||||||||||
1a | Randomized trial | No serious limitations | NA | No serious indirectness | Some imprecision | Publication bias a possibility | 182 | 188 | MD 0.0b (−0.1 to 0.0) | No more visits per 10 people | HIGH | CRITICAL |