Objective: To study the effects of applying an emergency department (ED) triage system, combined with extensive publicity in local media about the "right" use of emergency services, on the division of work between ED nurses and general practitioners (GPs).
Design: An observational and quasi-experimental study based on before-after comparisons.
Setting: Implementation of the ABCDE triage system in a Finnish combined ED where secondary care is adjacent, and in a traditional primary care ED where secondary care is located elsewhere.
Subjects: GPs and nurses from two different primary care EDs.
Main outcome measures: Numbers of monthly visits to different professional groups before and after intervention in the studied primary care EDs and numbers of monthly visits to doctors in the local secondary care ED.
Results: The beginning of the triage process increased temporarily the number of independent consultations and patient record entries by ED nurses in both types of studied primary care EDs and reduced the number of patient visits to a doctor compared with previous years but had no effect on doctor visits in the adjacent secondary care ED. No further decrease in the number of nurse or GP visits was observed by inhibiting the entrance of non-urgent patients.
Conclusion: The ABCDE triage system combined with public guidance may reduce non-urgent patient visits to doctors in different kinds of primary care EDs without increasing visits in the secondary care ED. However, the additional work to implement the ABCDE system is mainly directed to nurses, which may pose a challenge for staffing.
Keywords: Emergency department; Finland; general practice; patient grouping; primary care; reverse triage; triage.