Building a performance measurement framework for telephone triage services in Finland: a consensus-making study based on nominal group technique

Abstract

Abstract Background There has been a significant expansion in the measurement of healthcare system performance. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive performance measurement framework to assess the effects of telephone triage services on the urgent care system. The aim of our Delphi study was to construct and validate a performance measurement framework designed explicitly for telephone triage services. Methods This study was conducted in Finland with a group of eight experienced senior physicians from the country's 20 largest joint emergency departments, serving over 90% of the population for urgent care. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was utilised to achieve consensus on measuring telephone triage performance. Initially, performance indicators (PIs) were identified through Delphi method rounds from December 10th to December 27th, 2021, with eight experts participating, and from December 29th, 2021, to January 23rd, 2022, where five of these experts responded. NGT further deepened these themes and perspectives, aiding in the development of a comprehensive performance measurement framework. The final framework validation began with an initial round from February 13th to March 3rd, 2022, receiving five responses. Due to the limited number of responses, an additional validation round was conducted from October 29th to November 7th, 2023, resulting in two more responses, increasing the total number of respondents in the validation phase to seven. Results The study identified a strong desire among professionals to implement a uniform framework for measuring telephone triage performance. The finalised framework evaluates telephone triage across five dimensions: service accessibility, patient experience, quality and safety, process outcome, and cost per case. Eight specific PIs were established, including call response metrics, service utility, follow-up care type and distribution, ICPC-2 classified encounter reasons, patient compliance with follow-up care, medical history review during assessment, and service cost per call. Conclusions This study validated a performance measurement framework for telephone triage services, utilising existing literature and the NGT method. The framework includes five key dimensions: patient experience, quality and safety, outcome of the telephone triage process, cost per case, and eight PIs. It offers a structured and comprehensive approach to measuring the overall performance of telephone triage services, enhancing our ability to evaluate these services effectively.