International Journal of Family Medicine

Research Article

From Doctor to Nurse Triage in the Danish Out-of-Hours Primary Care Service: Simulated Effects on Costs

Table 1

The existing situation and four simulated models of patient flows in the regional out-of-hours service taking care of 1.25 mill inhabitants presented in number of contacts and costs during a year. Based on figures from 2011.
 Telephone consultations2Supervising GPsClinic consultationsHome visitsTotal costs
(€)
Existing situation:
(634,978 patient calls1)		     
 Present flow     
  Share59% 28%13% 
  Numbers 375,403  178,85180,724  
 Present costs     
  Costs (€) 5,016,086 4,792,7613,090,34912,899,196
Scenario 1:
(634,978 patient calls1 = 100% of calls)		     
 Simulated flow     
  Share41% 40%19% 
  Numbers 260,341 253,991 120,646  
 Simulated costs     
  Costs (€)3,742,825772,0066,806,3324,618,67115,939,834
Scenario 2:
(476,234 patient calls = 75% of calls)		     
 Simulated flow     
  Share41% 40%19% 
  Numbers 195,256 190,494 90,484  
 Simulated costs     
  Costs (€) 2,807,119772,0065,104,7543,646,32312,330,202
Scenario 3:
(476,234 patient calls = 75% of calls)		     
 Simulated flow     
  Share59% 28%13% 
  Numbers 280,978 133,34661,910 
 Simulated costs     
  Costs (€) 2,807,119772,0063,573,3282,370,1109,522,563
The number of patients calling the out-of-hours service in 2011 used in the scenarios.
2Contacts terminated on the telephone.