Healthcare teams must be able to collaborate well if they want to provide high-quality care. This extends beyond doctors and nurses in a clinical setting — it’s also about administrative staff, medical answering services, and triage teams that handle initial patient calls. These first points of contact are pivotal in determining what types of care patients should seek.
Of these, medical answering services tend to be the weakest link when it comes to relaying comprehensive patient requests. That’s why TriageLogic developed MedMessage Assist™, a platform that can significantly improve medical intake by ensuring over 99% accuracy on every patient message.
The Role of Medical Answering Services in Patient Care
Medical answering services are essential for managing the high volume of calls that healthcare teams receive on a daily basis. They’re usually managed by nonclinical operators who act as the initial points of contact for patients who need medical advice, appointment scheduling, or service requests like medication refills. While answering services provide a valuable administrative function, they can miss important symptoms and details that nurses need to gauge the urgency of each patient request.
This is no fault of these operators — they simply don’t have the medical background to know when to ask additional questions, or what those questions are.
For example, a patient calling about a medication refill may fail to mention that they’re also experiencing some concerning side effects from withdrawal. This can lead to:
- A delayed response time, because the nurse thinks it’s a nonurgent request.
- Incomplete information, because a provider doesn’t have a full picture of what the patient is experiencing.
- Patient dissatisfaction, because they don’t feel heard, and may seek future care elsewhere.
How MedMessage Assist Enhances Patient Care
We’ve seen how difficult collaboration can be for healthcare teams. By some estimates, poor communication has influenced “more than 60% of all hospital adverse events.” That’s why we developed MedMessage Assist (MMA) to provide a more reliable and medically informed solution for handling patient calls. MMA leverages our expertise in nurse triage and medical call center management to improve the quality of these initial patient interactions so that healthcare teams are able to respond appropriately.
Accuracy in Message Handling
MedMessage Assist uses augmented intelligence to analyze the text that an operator types while they’re talking with a patient. If MMA identifies a symptom that could be indicative of a more severe condition, it prompts the operator with additional questions they should ask. This information is then used by a triage nurse to accurately assess the severity of the patient’s needs.
Our solution is more effective than any training we’ve seen, and it’s over 99% accurate.
Improved Communication Between Teams
MedMessage Assist facilitates better communication between administrative staff, triage nurses, and healthcare providers. By offering a clear assessment of each patient’s needs, it reduces the chances of miscommunication and encourages faster care for potential emergency cases.
Real-time Updates and Documentation
The system operates in real time to analyze text and generate questions. This ensures that operators get the information that they need on those initial phone calls without creating any delays in medical intake. It also helps practices reduce their liability.
Additional Benefits for Healthcare Teams
Coordinated care begins the moment nonclinical operators answer the phone. MMA is a powerful tool that allows these operators to do their jobs better than before.
Along with the benefits outlined above, it’s also worth noting that MMA is:
- Self-teaching. You don’t have to go through long, drawn-out training sessions to learn how to use the software.
- Stand-alone. It’s able to seamlessly integrate with any in-house software, and doesn’t require additional add-ons for full functionality.
- Compliant. It meets requirements for HIPAA and cybersecurity.
Would you like to see a demonstration of MedMessage Assist and learn how it can help you improve patient outcomes at your practice? Contact us today!
About TriageLogic
TriageLogic is a URAC-accredited, physician-led provider of top-quality nurse telehealth technology, remote patient monitoring, and medical call center solutions. Founded in 2007, the TriageLogic Group now serves more than 22,000 physicians and covers over 42 million lives nationwide.
