Summary: TriageLogic has collected data from nurse triage call centers and studied how patient behavior and use of telephone nurse triage services may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., December 14, 2020 – TriageLogic, a leader in telephone nurse triage and remote patient communication, has released data pertaining to remote nurse triage in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study provide insight into how triage nurses can help hospitals and healthcare organizations provide high-quality remote care for patients during major public health episodes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how doctors and health facilities care for patients. Between lockdown orders and public fear of going to doctor’s offices or hospitals, telemedicine and remote nurse triage has become a vital service for the healthcare industry. Through these changes, TriageLogic, a leading provider of remote telephone nurse triage, has kept meticulous records on patient sentiments, attitudes, demographics, and triage outcomes to help providers and hospitals better understand their patients. While doing so, TriageLogic has provided high quality care to callers by diverting patients without worrying symptoms with homecare advice or by scheduling telehealth visits.
With this data, TriageLogic extrapolated trends and insights that can help the healthcare industry better understand the pandemic and patient responses to it. The white paper, titled “Nurse Triage: Patient Phone Calls About COVID-19”, has been published on TriageLogic’s website and social media in December 2020 for all healthcare providers and organizations to review.
The insights from this paper are helpful in explaining the importance of telephone triage and remote patient care; the numbers clearly support the fact that patients, in times of anxiety and genuine sickness, turned to these lines because they are an effective, convenient, and safe alternative to going to the emergency room or doctor’s office. This has helped alleviate the health care system during a time of record hospital admissions due to COVID-19.
The key takeaways are as follows:
- The percentage of calls TriageLogic’s call centers received about COVID mirrored the spikes in the total number of cases.
- Calls, especially those regarding exposure, were relatively high at the beginning of the pandemic. This is likely due to a lack of information at that time.
- Patients who called about COVID were less likely than average to need urgent medical attention However, they were more likely to need some sort of follow-up with a medical professional.
- Triage nurses were able to identify the 21% of patients who needed urgent care and direct them to seek medical treatment. Remote nurse triage directly affects patient outcomes and potentially saves lives.
- COVID-19 may have changed the way patients sought care for other conditions. The correlation between higher rates of anxiety and increases in the number of people who weren’t planning to go to the ER but were told to seek urgent medical attention by the triage nurse points to the fact that patients were avoiding or delaying seeking care for fear of catching COVID.
This data has been made widely available to the medical community in hopes that it sheds light on patients and their behavior during this difficult time. You can read the full paper here.
About TriageLogic®
TriageLogic is a URAC-accredited, physician-led provider of top-quality nurse telehealth technology, remote patient monitoring, and medical call center solutions, all with the purpose of encouraging positive patient behavior and improving access to healthcare. Founded in 2006, the TriageLogic Group now serves more than 9,000 physicians and covers over 20 million lives nationwide. They continue to partner with private practices, hospitals, and corporations throughout the U.S.
Visit www.TriageLogic.com for more information, or email them at info@triagelogic.com.
