How Can Answering Service Operators Help Your Triage Nurses Know if a Call Is Urgent? A New Tool for Answering Services
It’s every triage nurse’s responsibility to get a patient caller to the appropriate care in the appropriate window of time. Nurses taking patient phone calls usually work on a callback queue and are trained to prioritize calls based on the symptoms collected by the answering service. So how do nurses know if a call is urgent and needs to be answered immediately? It may be obvious if a parent complains about a baby under 3 months with fever, or an adult calls with chest pain. However, some
Charu Raheja Named One of JBJ’s “Women of Influence 2022”
TriageLogic is proud to announce that its CEO, Charu Raheja, has been named one of the Jacksonville Business Journal’s “Women of Influence 2022.” Below are excerpts from that article, her thoughts on why TriageLogic has been so successful when it comes to patient health, and the excitement she has for the technology and innovation yet to come. Evolving Nurse Triage Charu has been a big proponent for nurse triage for a long time – fourteen years, in fact. Her investment in TriageLogic has translated into
Choosing the Correct Protocol in Nurse Triage: An In-Depth Discussion of Fever Protocol
As part of the nurse triage process, nurses need to select guided protocols to evaluate patient symptoms and make decisions on their care dispositions. Which protocol a triage nurse uses depends on the symptoms. However, one symptom often presents itself in conjunction with others: fever. When this happens, it may be tempting to select the fever protocol, but a triage nurse should only use it when a fever is the only symptom a patient experiences. Most of the time, a fever is not an immediate cause
How to Address Infant Health Risks Using Telephone Triage
It can be difficult to triage infant health risks over the phone due to the fact that these patients are unable to verbalize why they don’t feel well, or where they’re experiencing discomfort. Triage nurses must know how to obtain the necessary health information from the parents or guardians who call on their children’s behalf. They must also keep in mind that callers may be distressed, which is often the case for new parents. Consider the following example of a call involving an infant, as
Case Study: How a Triage Nurse Uses Protocols for Tick Bites
As the weather heats up, daylight lasts longer, and people spend more time outdoors, tick bites become more common. Ticks are usually active during April to September, and the CDC notes that they often show up “in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas,” on animals, or even as close as your own backyard. In the event that one of your patients notices the tell-tale sign of a tick bite, it’s important that your triage nurses use the appropriate triage protocols to guide them to the right
Press Release: Checklist to Ensure Patient Care Quality in Nurse Telehealth Triage
How do you ensure patient care quality when it comes to nurse telehealth triage? Whether you use an outsourced nurse triage service or you want to license software and use your own team, follow this checklist when addressing each and every patient caller. Not only do these important items minimize liability with remote care, but they also ensure a high quality of care for patients and a decrease in overall healthcare costs. We’ve seen firsthand how successful these items have been in our own nurse triage
Should Nurse Triage Call Centers Record Phone Calls?
Why should you record your triage calls? That may sound like a silly question, but not everyone does — and that’s a risky decision when it comes to maintaining high levels of quality assurance. Recording your calls will keep nurses accountable, mitigate liability against them and your practice, and provide oversight to identify potential training needs. Here’s more about why each of these reasons are important, and how TriageLogic addresses them within its own nurse triage call center. Nurse Accountability Nurses should be aware that
How Effective is Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)?
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) was a welcome addition to patient care in a time of social distancing. Now that many places are beginning to open back up, and mask mandates are going away, healthcare providers are reviewing their data to see how effective these RPM programs have been — and whether they’re worth continuing. Based on those findings, we’re confident that RPM is here to stay. But let’s dig a little deeper into why by addressing a few important factors. 1. Reimbursements for Value-Based Care
Average Times for Patient Call-Backs From Nurse Triage: Emergent, Urgent, and Non-Urgent
Many telehealth nurse triage departments rely on patient call-backs to help address those with the most pressing medical needs. But how are these calls prioritized, and what call-back times are appropriate when it comes to emergent, urgent, and non-urgent symptoms? Below, you’ll find a full breakdown of the policies we follow in our own nurse triage call center. But first, let’s review why call-backs are important. Reasons for Patient Call-Backs Healthcare providers make use of patient call-backs for a couple of reasons. First, call volumes
How Do You Train Triage Nurses?
Training triage nurses is different than training nurses for in-person patient interaction for a couple of reasons: 1) triage nurses cannot see or touch their patient callers, which means 2) they need to ask appropriate questions to clarify each patient’s concerns and evaluate all relevant symptoms. To do this effectively, nurses must be educated on how to use standardized triage protocols, document patient calls thoroughly, be mindful of their tone of voice, stay focused, and guide callers when they need emergency assistance. Here’s how our
How a Telehealth Triage Nurse Determines if a Child’s Cough Is a Concern
A child’s cough can be a point of concern, especially to new parents. This was the case even before the COVID-19 pandemic, when this symptom accounted for the second highest number of triage calls. Now, it’s even more important that telehealth triage nurses are available to address this concern and confirm whether it’s severe enough for parents to take their children to the ER. Here’s how nurses can make that determination while also reassuring parent callers. Follow the 10 Critical Steps We teach how triage
Are You Experiencing a Nursing Shortage? Outsourced Telehealth Triage Can Help.
You’ve probably heard about the prevailing nursing shortage that’s grown since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chances are, your organization has experienced its effects to some degree. But early retirement and employee burnout aren’t the only reasons for the lack of available nurses. It’s also due to surprising delays in nurse licensing. According to NPR, this isn’t an isolated incident, especially in states that currently report a higher percentage of available nurses. Here’s why, and how outsourced telehealth triage can offer temporary relief. Cause
