Telephone Triage

Triage assistants asked additional study questions for MHS and INTERCHEST, but these questions did not affect routine urgency codes. Telephone triage is safety-critical because missing ACS or another urgent condition outweighs false positive urgent classifications. Acute chest pain in prehospital settings may reflect benign causes or urgent conditions. The study setting involved initial assessment of chest pain patients by telephone without hospital-level diagnostic tools. Future tools may need to be designed specifically for telephone triage instead of adapted from daytime primary care rules.