Background:

Teletriage comprises the preliminary remote assessment of clinical signs and symptoms and its consequent referral to the most appropriate healthcare services (emergent, urgent or non-urgent ones). LUZ24 covers videoconsultation and teletriage, the latter one being exclusively carried out by a team of nurses also composed by specialists in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing.

Aim:

To measure the results of the teletriage activity performed by LUZ24 nurses in a Mental Health and Psychiatry field.

Methods:

Document analysis that emerged from the following question: What are the results of the teletriage activity performed by nurses from LUZ24 in the context of psychiatric and mental health? The Strengthening Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines were followed. Study developed from the analysis of the Oracle BI Publisher electronic clinical records database regarding teletriages carried out between January 2020 and December 2021. The analysis and consequent treatment of the data used the Microsoft Excel tool on its version 2021, with descriptive statistical measures being applied for the characterization of the sample and for the clinical data. The research was approved by the Research Commission and the Competent Ethics Commission of Hospital da Luz.

Results:

Out of a total of 63,396 general teletriage assessments, 1,005 (1.59%) were analyzed in the scope of mental health and psychiatry. The sample is predominantly female (64.78%), with an average age of 50.41 years. The teletriage was conducted using decision-making algorithms called protocols. Ten protocols were used, with the three most prevalent being Anxiety or Situational Crisis (47.16%), Insomnia (26.77%), and Mental Illness (14.33%). Referral to consultation was the most prevalent (63.98%).

Conclusions:

The teletriage conducted by expert nurses - trained in remote clinical evaluation and using protocols - enabled the evaluation of symptomatology in the scope of mental health and psychiatric, as well as the referral of clients.

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