Traditional training for nonclinical operators to perform medical message intake often requires about a month: first, a week to learn how to be an operator, then an additional two for memorizing industry terminology, keywords, and patient symptoms that could be red flags for greater health complications. This is usually a manual process with operators who have no medical training, which means it’s both time-consuming and leaves the door open for potential message inaccuracy. We’ve developed an easy-to-use software solution for operators that reduces this training time, offers guidance on patient symptoms when they call, improves medical message intake accuracy, and serves as a safety net against possible mistakes. Learn more about the benefits of our latest solution, MedMessage Assist (MMA).
Our MMA software analyzes the text that operators type while they’re speaking with patients over the phone, then identifies when those operators should ask patients follow-up questions to clarify their symptoms and potential red flags. Not only does this substantially shorten the onboarding process for new operators, it ensures that their medical messages are thorough for providers and triage nurses to accurately gauge symptom severity — and respond in the appropriate windows of time. In other words, it’s a safety net for patient health, operator accuracy, and practice liability.
The Challenge of Accurate Medical Messages
As their name implies, nonclinical operators have no medical certification, which means it’s easy for them to overlook symptoms that patients report that are indicative of larger medical issues. This can lead to messages that don’t accurately reflect the urgency of patients’ symptoms, which happens more than you might think — sometimes, as much as 40 percent of the time.
We aren’t faulting operators, as they can’t help what they don’t know. What’s important is that our software will improve their performance.
Originally, we thought that specialized training was the best way for operators to reinforce their knowledge and improve their patient interactions. While initial results were promising, those over the long term demonstrated how accuracy would again wane, and how more training was not a sustainable solution.
Thus, the development of MMA.
Example Patient With MedMessage Assist
Understanding how MMA makes all of the difference for medical messages can be easily demonstrated in the following example:
A patient called and told a nonclinical operator that they needed a prescription refill for vertigo. The operator acknowledged their request, but didn’t ask any follow-up questions, because: a) it sounded like a simple refill, and b) the patient didn’t volunteer any additional information. Based on that interaction, a triage nurse would likely interpret it as a nonurgent request. But with MMA, the operator was prompted to ask the patient about whether they were experiencing any symptoms, to which the patient told them that they had weakness in their arm, leg, and face — necessitating a faster nurse response.
Implementing MedMessage Assist
MMA can either be used as a self-standing module that’s independent of your in-house software, or it can be integrated with your existing EMR. It also teaches new operators how to use it, meaning you won’t need any specialized training from a live instructor.
Most importantly, it adheres to HIPAA compliance and cybersecurity best practices for the protection and organization of your patient data.
Let’s Talk About a Program
Would you like to see how MMA works and what it can do for the improvement of your operator training? Let’s schedule some time for a demonstration.
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.
