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Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Triage errors in primary and pre-primary care: viewpoint
Hai Nguyen;
Andras Meczner;
Krista Burslam-Dawe;
Benedict Hayhoe
ABSTRACT
Triage errors are a major concern in healthcare due to resulting harmful delays in treatments or inappropriate allocation of resources. With increasing popularity of digital symptom checkers in pre-primary care settings, and amid claims that AI outperforms doctors, the accuracy of triage by digital symptom checkers is ever more scrutinised. This paper examines the context and challenges of triage in primary, pre-primary and emergency care, as well as reviews existing evidence on the prevalence of triage errors in all three settings. Implications for development, research and practice are highlighted, and recommendations made on how digital symptom checkers should be best positioned.