Gastroenteritis Symptoms Clinical Trial
Official title:
Effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness of Medical Advice Given by Telephone for Primary Care: the Formalised Telephone Medical Advice Study, a Cluster Randomised Control Trial.
Telephone medical advice in general practice is expanding. The Cochrane Database concludes in 2008 that there is not enough data about its use regarding out-of-hours general practitioners workload, emergency department visits, cost, safety and patient satisfaction. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of telephone medical advice given by a general practitioner in a call centre for patient presenting isolated fever or gastroenteritis symptoms.
This is a prospective, open label, cluster randomized trial of 2 880 expected patients who
calling a French emergency medical service Dial 15 for fever or gastroenteritis symptoms
during out-of-hours periods. All calls will be taken by a general practitioner (GP).
Out-of-hours period is defined as 8 PM to 8 AM on weekdays, 1 PM to 8PM on Saturdays in
addition to Sundays and holidays.To be exhaustive, we will enrol patients during one year.
In the experimental arm, the GP will implement a protocol of care to each patient call. The
protocol includes medical advice, drug prescription by phone and supervisory board. Patients
are invited to recall in case of worsening or onset of new symptoms and to get an
appointment with their GP during working hours.
In the non-interventional arm, the GP will decide the need of telephone advice with or
without drug prescription, home visit by a doctor, emergency department services with or
without EMS system.
We will recall every patient at 15+/-4 days.
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Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Treatment