Using Triage Nurses to Decrease ER Overcrowding
Medical Center in Oklahoma Provides and Innovative Triage Line to Manage Hospital overcrowding An Effective Approach to ER Phone Calls Emergency Room (ER) overcrowding is widespread in hospitals, creating delays and diversion from those who need care the most. According to a recent article “Compounding the problem is the alarming trend of a decreasing number of ERs and an increasing numbers of ER visits.[1]” All too often, injury or illness appears without warning for patients. For hospitals trying to control overcrowding, the obvious solution is
Don’t Compromise on Security
Letter from the Medical Director – Dr. Ravi Raheja The average cost of a data breach in the United States has hit an all-time high of $7.35 million. Just this year, there have been more than 100 hacker attacks on healthcare organizations, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Despite better awareness among healthcare organizations, data breach costs average $408 per record. Cybercriminals use weaponized ransomware, misconfigured cloud storage buckets and phishing emails to attack. Hidden costs in data breaches are difficult
The New Health Care: Value Based Care
CEO Perspective Value-based care is bending the healthcare cost curve, reducing unnecessary medical costs while improving care quality and patient engagement. Yet providers worry value-based reimbursement will negatively impact patient care. According to a recent survey by Change Healthcare, over 61% of doctors still fear value-based reimbursement will damage their practice. While physicians may feel uncertain about the impact value-based care will have on their practices, industry experts are sure that the transition away from fee-for-service payments and care delivery is here to stay. What
Office Exercises for Busy Nurses and Office Staff
While in the workplace we become sedentary due to a lack of movement over an extended amount of time. By being overwhelmed with work to meet deadlines, we forget to take a break to stretch our body. We focus ourselves on increasing our time to work while inadvertently decreasing our muscle quality. These desk exercises will not only increase the muscle quality, but will be a quick way to freshen-up to help increase your work productivity as an energy boost. You can share these exercise
The Goal of the Telephone Triage Process
The primary goal of the telephone triage process is to deliver safe quality oriented telephone triage partnered with outstanding customer service. The health safety and wellbeing of the patient is at the forefront of every telephone encounter. The purpose of the telephone triage process is to assess the patient’s current signs and symptoms, concurrently evaluating their past medical history and current medications. This patient assessment is performed in accordance with protocols which guide the nurse to determine the proper triage disposition to direct care to
Employee Spotlight – Rose Moon, RN, BSN
In this edition of Employee Spotlight, we are introducing Rose Moon, TriageLogic’s Clinical Education and Call Center IT Support Manager for over 5 years. She teaches triage nurses and other telephone triage professionals on how to triage patients over the phone and provide the highest quality of care. Rose Moon earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and joined Triage Logic with 25 years of nursing experience; including inpatient and outpatient pediatric care, as well as 17 years of telephone
Clinical Update by Schmitt-Thompson for Telephone Triage Nurse Call Centers
Important Metrics to Increase Safety and Satisfaction Barton Schmitt MD, one of the authors of the Schmitt-Thompson Protocols, has released a clinical update for the telephone triage nurses. This update is focused on the call center metrics for meeting The Quadruple Aim framework for optimizing the performance of health care systems. To review, the 4 aims are: Improve Health Quality and Safety Reduce Costs Improve Patient Satisfaction/Experience Improve Provider Satisfaction/Experience The update goes over each aim and what to focus. It also provides the metrics
Triage Levels
By Dr. Ravi Raheja, TriageLogic’s Medical Director and CIO: When a patient has a symptom, determining the appropriate triage level quickly and effectivelyis critical for several reasons. First, let us clarify what is a triage level? A triage level is the appropriate level of care base on the patient’s symptoms and medicalhistory. Levels usually include dispositions such as call 911, go to the emergency room, urgentcare visit, primary care or telemedicine visit within 24 to 48 hours, or most commonly homecare. Why is it important
Dr. Ravi Raheja Gives Tips on News4Jax for Staying Healthy During the Game Season
With fall comes cooler temperature, football games, and other fun outdoor activities. But with all the fun, there are also more health-related issues with cooler temperatures, games, and parties. Our Triage Nurses have documented that the flu has already broken in certain parts of the USA, and food poisoning and allergies are starting to rise. Read these tips from our Medical Director and CIO, Dr. Ravi Raheja, to share with your patients and staff on staying healthy during games and winter breaks. These tips can
Nurse Triage Options for ACOs and Medical Organizations: Improving Medical Care and Decreasing Costs
Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, are formed by groups of doctors and other healthcare providers. ACOs aim to encourage providers to decrease patients’ health expenses by taking responsibility for the quality of care provided. By doing so, providers receive a share of the Medicare savings while encouraging better preventive health care for their patients. The question for medical organizations that share on health savings is how can they improve patient care while decreasing care costs? This article focuses on the benefits of nurse triage and
Triage Nurses Help Physicians During Cold and Flu season
Winter and holiday season is coming and that means that doctor offices and triage nurses around the country are preparing for the high influx of patient phone calls during the season. Many calls can be handled over-the-phone with home care advice, while others require patients to come into the office. Schmitt-Thompson triage protocols for doctor offices (see, for example, myTriageChecklist), are an important resource for telephone triage nurses to use to ensure that all calls be handled using the same high-level standard of care. Still,
The Importance of an Independent Triage Nurse on Evaluating Symptoms – Interview with Dr. Charu Raheja and Dr. Ricardo Hanel
As medical provider knows, telephone triage nurses play a crucial role in evaluating symptoms and ensuring that patients receive the right level of care for their symptoms. A frequently discussed benefit of having a triage nurse available 24/7 is the decrease in unnecessary ER usage and its associated savings to health care. A less discussed and even more crucial benefit is the impact that triage nurses have on saving morbidity and improving patient wellbeing by ensuring that people are sent to the ER even when