Telehealth Triage Nurses See COVID Call Surges Comparable to 2020
Patient calls regarding COVID-19 have reached or exceeded what triage nurses experienced at the very beginning of the pandemic. This is due to the prevalence of the Omicron variant which overtook Delta before the holidays, and has since escalated anxiety and fear due to its high transmissibility even among the vaccinated. Hospital systems are already stressed in many states, says NPR, “where the number of people … with COVID-19 have exceeded or are nearing previous highs.” This underscores just how important dedicated telehealth triage nurses
Letter From the CTO: The Latest Nurse Triage Tech Integrates Healthcare Data and Enhances Its Security
2021 was an exciting year to say the least, and I’m not referring to the pandemic. The healthcare industry problems that we learned from in 2020 led us to ramp up our investment in technology for integrating healthcare services and enhancing the security of patient data. Here are just a few of the improvements our organization has been able to accomplish to help our hospitals, providers, and business clients: SOC 2 Type 2 Certification SOC 2 is meant as an audit of how we handle
Letter From the CEO: Telehealth Changes Needed in 2022
As we welcome the new year and take stock of 2021, I’m excited to reflect on all of the developments we’ve seen when it comes to telehealth. Digital visits are now a standard practice for many providers that patients have eagerly adopted. While this service has certainly been beneficial for patient availability and social distancing, plenty of doctors and nurses still find themselves under intense pressure and tight schedules to address all patient needs and avoid delays in care. To that end, TriageLogic has been
Triage Protocols for Hospice Care: A Conversation with Dr. David Thompson
Schmitt-Thompson triage protocols cover a wide range of patient symptoms in both adults and children, and have become the gold standard for dispositions on care. Now, Dr. David Thompson has developed a new set of protocols that can be used in hospice care. TriageLogic is fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to learn from him directly about how these protocols were developed, their purpose, and their importance to telehealth triage. The following Q&A is republished with his permission. Can you give us a little
Healthy Holiday Habits From Telehealth Nurses in the 2nd Year of COVID
It’s no surprise that the holidays are a difficult time for maintaining healthy habits. Alcohol consumption tends to go up, which increases the urge to eat more. Additionally, family gatherings, stress, as well as cases of seasonal affective disorder and depression can all contribute to higher rates of communicable disease. On top of that is the continued influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the more recent concerns about its Omicron variant, and the push to avoid crowded spaces. If all of this sounds exhausting, we’ve compiled
Customize Your Path to Care Using TriageLogic’s Schmitt-Thompson Protocol Editor
As telehealth evolves, healthcare organizations are expanding nurse capabilities in areas like telephone triage, remote patient monitoring, postop discharge, and chronic care management. This requires both flexibility and the means to adapt nurse telehealth protocols — including the industry standard developed by Drs. Schmitt and Thompson — to fit organization-specific needs. TriageLogic’s protocol editor is the only one on the market today with all of the features required to fully customize protocols with the proper change management. Here’s why: 1. It Customizes a Path to
The 6 Types of Difficult Calls a Telehealth Triage Nurse Should Be Prepared to Take
With the holiday months upon us, it isn’t surprising for telehealth triage nurses to see an increase in difficult calls. When we say difficult, we refer to those that are either: about cases of abuse or neglect; from unauthorized callers; about chronic ailments or repeat callers; about complicated medical or psychosocial issues; from callers who are excessively worried, anxious, or angry; and from callers who are hard to understand or communicate with. Like all areas of effective nurse triage, there are ways to handle each
Avoid Liability With Proper Documentation for Telehealth Nurse Triage
By the very nature of their profession, telephone triage nurses can’t physically see their patient callers. This begs the question, what kind of liability do they face when they provide dispositions for care? That’s why we were excited to sit down with D.D. Fritch, MSN, MHA, RN, a tenured clinical leader in this area of healthcare, who was happy to shed some light on the legal perspective and why it’s crucial for nurses to have the proper documentation. Question: Tell us a little about your
TriageLogic Employee Spotlight: Amy Smith
Welcome to the TriageLogic Employee Spotlight. This week’s rock star is Amy Smith, a jill-of-all-trades who has been with the company from the beginning! These days, she’s primarily involved with sales and account management, but don’t be surprised if you run into her at HR, contracting, or bookkeeping. Because of everything she’s done for the company, we want to highlight what led her to a career in healthcare, and her experiences since coming aboard. Below are excerpts from that interview. Interviewer: When did you start working
Cybersecurity Best Practices for Healthcare, Telehealth, and Nurse Triage
Most medical organizations are not adequately prepared when it comes to their cybersecurity. According to a recent survey of 4,500 cybersecurity professionals, only 4 percent reported they were from healthcare. This reality is especially concerning now that malicious code like ransomware has become monetized as well as because of the dangerous conditions that hospitals face if they lose access to their patient data. While training and workforce growth are important factors for building a more robust IT infrastructure, here are the main areas that healthcare
“Real-Time Updates” and “Triage Software Integration” Among Reasons to Use Software with Schmitt-Thompson Nurse Triage Protocols
Healthcare organizations benefit greatly when their nurse triage and telehealth services use a software with Schmitt-Thompson protocols. These have been shown to decrease unnecessary provider spend and substantially improve patient health outcomes. But what really makes these protocols the best method for dispositions on patient symptoms? Developed by Doctors As a pediatrician, Barton Schmitt, MD contributes to office-hours and after-hours protocols focused on child symptoms and severity. He wrote the first book on pediatric telephone triage back in 1980, and currently serves as Professor of
TriageLogic Employee Spotlight: Barbianne Roe
Welcome to the TriageLogic Employee Spotlight. This week’s rock star is Barbianne Roe, a registered nurse since 2003. Barbianne joined our team a couple years back as a triage nurse, and now serves as our Customer Service Manager. We sat down with her recently to talk more about what drew her to a career in healthcare, and some of the experiences she’s had along the way. Check out excerpts from that interview below. Interviewer: How did you realize that you wanted to become a nurse?
