Get an Accurate Nurse Triage History Every Time: Introducing TriageLogic’s History Assist Module

Offices today are struggling to maintain qualified support staff who can assist patients when they have medical questions or symptoms. Currently, nonclinical team members take messages for nurses, or patients leave voicemails for nurses. Those nurses are then pressured to make good decisions about the proper levels of care, while documenting each case thoroughly for provider review later. Providers will often have to review each nurse’s notes and make decisions without having spoken to their patients. For an office to operate efficiently, it is critical to train its nurses quickly, help them document thoroughly, and show them how to create an accurate nurse triage history that providers can easily read and approve without talking with patients. 

Challenges With Collecting and Documenting an Accurate Nurse Triage History

As frontline defenders in health care, medical assistants (MAs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and registered nurses (RNs) can all be tasked with obtaining detailed symptom histories in order to update patient medical records. Studies have shown how physicians use a patient’s history to make a diagnosis 70 – 90% of the time. When it comes to telephone nurse triage, where visual assessments are not an option, patient history is used to determine the appropriate level of care nearly 100% of the time.

For nurse triage, this leads to a couple of challenges. 

First, this means that staff members must have the ability to obtain a thorough medical history for each patient on their presenting symptoms. Second, and equally important, is the need to document and share this information in such a manner that it’s easily interpreted by the referred physician. This is where the traditional art of triage documentation does not meet the demands of a modern office, and what we’re focusing on solving here today.

Honing the Skill for Patient Narratives

Physicians with years of practice and countless rounds under their belts are able to hone the skill of crafting succinct patient stories. These narratives highlight the critical positives and negatives of each patient’s symptoms and conditions to create clear, vivid pictures about what is happening to them. While seasoned doctors may find it effortless to use these narratives when talking with their patients, the same isn’t always the case for nurses who are initially triaging them. 

This begs the question: how can we translate this skill set to nurses of varying backgrounds and levels of experience so that they can gather and report patient information to doctors with the same efficacy?

Enter TriageLogic’s History Assist Module

We’ve developed an innovative solution called History Assist that standardizes how medical personnel can obtain relevant patient symptoms to create an accurate nurse triage history. This state-of-the-art module guides intake personnel through a series of pertinent questions that are tailored to a patient’s reported symptoms, and crafts a coherent narrative at the same time. This narrative is not simply a random assortment of facts, but also a story that resonates with the provider and encapsulates all of the details that they need for review in order to expedite care.

Beyond its process, what truly distinguishes the History Assist module is its user-friendly interface which requires minimal typing, thereby increasing the efficiency of recordkeeping while reducing the potential for error. The system’s intuitive nature allows for a shorter learning curve, making it accessible and comprehensible to staff throughout a doctor’s office. Moreover, it offers simulated training powered by AI that is easy to follow, and reinforces how the system operates so that you can train new staff with less human capital.

All patient interactions using this module can be documented thoroughly with nurse triage software and integrated with in-house EHRs for continuity of care and practice liability. It works especially well as an add-on for organizations that currently use EPIC’s triage module.

The bottom line: History Assist ensures that patient health information is accurate and organized in such a way that your doctors will have an easier time verifying your nurses’ decisions for directing care.

Start Your Program for Accurate Nurse Triage History

If you would like to see how History Assist can benefit your team, all that’s required are three simple steps.

Step One: Meet with a triage expert from our team to understand your current triage process.

Step Two: We show you how the software will work within your current environment.

Step Three: With your approval, you start a free trial and evaluate the results.

Are you ready to set a new standard for patient triage and care? Contact us today to see a demo and discuss a personalized program.