Two nonclinical operators man the front desk at a medical practice and perform medical message intake.

This Healthcare Tool Can Empower Staff with Medical Message Intake

The healthcare industry continues to suffer a labor shortage that could have considerable long-term effects, with some estimates showing the United States could have a deficit of 124,000 physicians in the next decade. But finding enough doctors and nurses isn’t the only concern. Practices are also experiencing difficulty maintaining nonclinical staff for their medical message intake. These positions — either at the front desks of

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Symptom screening tools concept: a medical provider sitting at a desk uses a pen to checkmark boxes hanging in the air.

Symptom Screening Tools Vs. Nurse Triage

When patients call their doctor’s offices, the first people to greet them are usually front desk receptionists at those practices, or nonclinical phone operators in call centers. Neither are certified medical professionals, which means that they aren’t trained to give patients feedback about diagnoses or treatment. Some practices have implemented symptom screening tools to have nonclinical operators give patients initial health reviews before speaking with

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Two nurses review triage protocols on a desktop computer.

More Than Just Protocols: Critical Thinking in Nurse Triage Is Essential

While Schmitt-Thompson triage protocols are highly effective for evaluating patients’ symptoms, critical thinking in nurse triage is a vital skill providers must use when determining the appropriate dispositions for care. That’s the takeover from a recent newsletter released by Schmitt-Thompson, which you can read in full here. Below, we review several ways that nurses can practice critical thinking skills. Using Protocols as a Guideline Schmitt-Thompson

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A sick student leans their chin against their notebook while writing and cradling a mug.

Back to School: What’s the Difference Between COVID-19, Flu, and Colds? Using Schmitt-Thompson Protocols to Evaluate Student Symptoms

As students return to the classroom, it’s common for a certain percentage to contract and spread diseases. Students recognize this fact, and — up until COVID-19 — probably gave it little thought. Now, three years into the pandemic, more parents and students are concerned about knowing the difference between COVID-19, flu, and colds. We’ve discussed before how Schmitt-Thompson protocols are valuable to college campus health

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Student behavioral health outcomes concept: a sad student leaning against a window uses her smartphone to call her college's nurse triage line.

Back to School: Improving College Student Behavioral Health Outcomes With Schmitt-Thompson Protocols

It’s no surprise that more colleges are making student health a priority. Young adults of this generation have had to deal with more types of mental health concerns like depression and anxiety, not to mention a potential fall wave of COVID-19. To improve college student behavioral health outcomes, campus health centers need to have the best tools available for evaluating student symptoms, particularly over the

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A nonclinical staff member at a front desk takes phone messages for a medical office.

How Do You Improve Phone Messages in a Medical Office and Avoid Mistakes?

Have you ever received a message that a patient needed a prescription refill, only to find out that it was something more serious? Or perhaps your nurses weren’t given enough information to identify the severity of a patient’s symptoms? While these may not seem like immediate concerns, these types of medical message errors have the potential for dangerous (even fatal) results for those patients, not

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A patient uses a smartphone to check her glucose levels measured by an RPM device attached to her shoulder as part of type 1 diabetes management.

Type 1 Diabetes Management: Improve Patient Care and Increase Revenue with Remote Patient Monitoring

For endocrinologists, type 1 diabetes management comes with its own set of challenges. Foremost among them is the constant need to monitor each patient’s blood sugar levels, which involves significant time commitments from healthcare providers and staff. For most treatment plans, patients must contact their endocrinologists’ offices when they identify abnormal blood sugar levels so that office staff can evaluate their requests and notify doctors

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Morbidity and mortality concept: a patient in a medical bed clutches their chest, which is illuminated red.

Nurse Triage for Morbidity and Mortality: Save Lives and Lower Healthcare Costs

We recently discussed why a nurse triage service is important for helping patients avoid unnecessary ER visits. The same holds true for those patients who have serious conditions, but hesitate to seek emergency care. Read on to learn why implementing nurse triage can reduce patient morbidity and mortality, and lower the associated healthcare costs at the same time. Why Patients Delay Care Many patients can

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A nurse hands a pill bottle to a patient at the ER.

Nurse Triage Saves Unnecessary ER Visits

Every year, plenty of people mistakenly think their symptoms are serious enough to warrant a trip to the emergency department. However, data shows that in two-thirds of these cases, ED visits are “avoidable” and “not an actual emergency.” While the mindset of “better safe than sorry” may make sense to patients, their unnecessary ER visits can actually be problematic — to them, other patients, and

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A nonclinical operator demonstrates how to improve medical message intake by using MedMessage Assist on a computer while talking with a patient over the phone.

Case Study: Improving Medical Message Intake With Augmented Intelligence for Your Operators

How accurate are the medical messages that your nonclinical operators send to your providers? According to Gilman and Bedigian, LLS, a law firm that specializes in medical malpractice, one of the biggest factors that leads to a lawsuit is when operators don’t send critical messages to doctors immediately. In fact, we have found that out of all emergency messages, about 30 percent do not accurately

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A doctor wearing a white coat and stethoscope uses a tablet to access a patient's EHR.

Integrate Nurse Triage Software with EHRs: Advances in a Modular Triage System

Today’s push for all-things-digital extends well into healthcare, particularly when it involves nurse triage and electronic health records. Whereas triage nurses were once strictly phone-based roles, they now utilize telehealth with patients to discuss symptoms over video conferencing, or review patient vitals through remote patient monitoring (RPM). These new services are often viewed positively, but they do raise concerns from some providers who are looking

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