How Triage Software Can Improve Patient Care

Are long patient wait times and overwhelmed staff affecting the quality of care in your hospital? Addressing both starts with the right nurse triage software. Let’s explore what features are the most important to look for in these types of solutions, and how TriageLogic’s myTriageChecklist (MTC) is able to meet them.

Understanding Nurse Triage Software

Nurse triage software is used by nurses who answer patient phone requests, determine the severity of patient symptoms, and guide them to the appropriate providers. It does this by utilizing standardized protocols like those developed by Drs. Barton Schmitt and David Thompson, which use a yes/no decision tree for identifying the worst-case scenarios that patients may be experiencing. This service provides consistent, accurate medical guidance, particularly for patients who need help after normal office hours. 

Enhancing Patient Care

Implementing nurse triage software offers several benefits that directly impact patient care. One of the most significant advantages is improved accessibility to care advice at any time of day. Patients don’t have to worry about going out of their way to seek treatment if they can understand when their symptoms don’t require further evaluation by simply dialing a medical call center.

Plus, the use of evidence-based protocols standardizes patient assessments, allowing each patient to be addressed in the same way to avoid bias, errors in documentation, and incorrect care recommendations. 

By accurately determining each patient’s needs, triage software helps prioritize cases so that critical patients receive immediate attention. When coupled with after-hours nurse triage, your practice can offer unparalleled support that will improve health outcomes and reduce practice liability.

Operational Benefits for Healthcare Facilities

Beyond patient care, nurse triage software includes operational advantages — specifically, when it comes to patient wait times. An efficient triage process can decrease the average period that patients have to wait to be seen because their needs have already been prioritized before they show up to a doctor’s office, urgent care, or emergency department. Hospitals and clinics also see significant cost savings by using nurse triage to direct patients to the appropriate levels of care, thereby reducing unnecessary hospital admissions, readmissions, and associated expenses. This leads to improved patient experiences and higher satisfaction rates. 

Another major advantage is enhanced data management. Having a digital paper trail of patient interactions over the phone is certainly important, but when that recordkeeping can be integrated directly with your practice’s electronic health records, your team will be able to provide greater continuity of care by tracking health trends, identifying common patient concerns, making more-informed decisions to improve services, and even predicting future call volumes. 

Implementing TriageLogic’s Nurse Triage Software

TriageLogic offers a comprehensive nurse triage software solution that caters to the specific needs of healthcare facilities. MyTriageChecklist uses the latest daytime and nighttime versions of Schmitt-Thompson protocols for children and adults, and operates on a HIPAA-compliant cloud platform for secure storage and access controls. 

Its high degree of customization allows practices to create their own standardized pathways to care by working with existing software and workflows. In terms of staff training, MTC is designed for ease-of-use: it can be up and running in 30 minutes or less, and comes with live training and ongoing support from a team of physicians, nurses, and IT experts. We also include long-term support to make sure that using our software benefits your team and its continued success. 

Triage Software Is Essential for Modern Health Care

As your practice scales and your patient needs increase, now may be the time to consider innovative solutions to help you maintain optimal care. Nurse triage software is one way to manage the required documentation and provider workload involved with these changes, while ensuring that your patients receive the help they need when they need it. 

Would you like to learn more about myTriageChecklist and see a demonstration of our software? Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.