TriageLogic’s Dr. Charu Raheja to Chair the Neurosurgery Outreach Foundation’s Benefit Challenge
TriageLogic is excited to announce that its CEO, Dr. Charu Raheja, will be chairing an upcoming benefit challenge and dinner party with The Neurosurgery Outreach Foundation (NOF) on November 13th! The event, titled A Portrait of a Pastry Chef as an Artist, will offer an exciting pastry competition as part of a fundraiser for several NOF programs: their educational surgical mission, educational award, medical equipment and patient support, and hydrocephalus centers. A panel of judges — including Chef Rebecca Reed, Chopped’s Dessert Champ of 2020
Using Telehealth Nurses to Create a Concierge Practice
Concierge healthcare may sound like it’s referring to on-call doctors tending only to the super-rich, but the reality is thankfully not so narrow. These subscription-based services are often affordable to the average American, and even preferable to current insurance-driven models. But what you might be surprised to learn is that traditional doctors can use telehealth and telephone nurse triage to reduce patient costs even further and still provide concierge-level care. In fact, the continuity of care that telehealth nurses establish between patients and their physicians
How Triage Nurses Provide Positive Patient Experiences by Phone and Telehealth
While the methods for providing positive patient experiences may have changed over time, the reasons haven’t. In fact, NRC Health’s comments from a few years back still hold up today: by attracting and retaining patients, you prompt them to “become more engaged in their own care, and develop a stronger sense of loyalty to your organization.” Our current healthcare environment means these experiences are no longer only happening in person — they’re often beginning and continuing over the phone and online. So when it comes to
TriageLogic Proud to Be Recognized by Inc. 5000
TriageLogic is excited to announce its ranking on the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies list this year! Considering how much of a trying time it’s been for business globally — and for healthcare in particular — this recognition is all the more gratifying. It truly would not have been possible without the continued efforts of our entire team. By the Numbers TriageLogic ranked: #340 in the state of Florida. #342 for healthcare in the US. #27 for the local Jacksonville area! Why We’re Growing TriageLogic
Physical Safeguards Your Cybersecurity Needs to Protect Patient Data in Telehealth
The past year and a half has redefined the healthcare industry. Not only have hospitals and practices quickly adapted to an emergency pandemic and a heavy demand for telehealth, they’ve also seen an increase in cyberattacks. These have placed medical organizations on high alert to review their network security, as well as their patient data and the vendors who collect it. According to a recent article in Forbes, “The number of hacking incidents reported in healthcare climbed for the fifth straight year in 2020 …
Nurse Triage Case Study: Giving Appropriate Callback Instructions
Any time that a triage nurse speaks to a patient caller about their symptoms, they need to include callback instructions. These are meant to guide the patient on what to do in case those symptoms worsen. It is imperative that the nurse provides enough information to the patient so that they can identify when that change has been significant enough to warrant a callback. Case Study: Infant’s Dry Cough To explain this process in more detail, let’s consider a case study involving a nine-week-old infant
COVID or Flu? Telephone Nurse Triage Tips for Pediatric Patients
Because we’re back in flu season, doctor offices and our nurse triage lines have received an uptick in callers who are confused and worried about whether their children have contracted COVID or influenza. Their concerns are understandable, especially when there aren’t many differences in symptoms between COVID and flu, and both follow similar treatment. Masks and social distancing last year saw a historically low flu percentage, which is now likely to go back up due to eased restrictions. Here are tips that triage nurses should
Case Study: Using Schmitt-Thompson Protocols to Triage Acute Pain
When addressing adult patients with acute pain, telephone triage nurses benefit from Schmitt-Thompson protocols in two ways: 1) most older adults already have chronic conditions that complicate identifying their pain’s source; and 2) they may have multiple injuries that need to be assessed and prioritized. Schmitt-Thompson protocols ensure that responding triage nurses identify all symptoms and do so in order of severity. Let’s see how this is applied through an example scenario with a patient named Paula. Assessing multiple symptoms Paula calls a triage support
What are Schmitt-Thompson Protocols?
As telehealth gains in popularity, it’s even more important for physicians to ensure that their patients receive consistent, accurate advice on every call. When it’s in regard to a patient’s symptoms, nurses are usually the first line of care. In order to determine if those symptoms can either be managed at home, with a primary care physician, or at the Emergency Room, triage nurses need a framework to guide them. Schmitt-Thompson Protocols Doctors Barton Schmitt and David Thompson, a pediatric practitioner and an internist respectively,
Home Health Agencies Using RPM Will Be Rewarded by Medicare
The shift from volume-based care to value-based has extended from hospitals and doctors’ offices to home health agencies. According to Fierce Healthcare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) created a payment model that “incentivizes quality of care improvements without denying or limiting coverage or provision of Medicare benefits for all Medicare consumers and includes updates to payment rates and policies…” This change is expected to go national by 2022. Once this is enacted, if an agency ranks in the top 20 percent, they’re
What Does a Triage Nurse Do in a Doctor’s Office?
Triage nurses can play an essential role for any doctor’s office by addressing patient callers and providing the best dispositions for their care. This work can be performed during the day using a simple protocols checklist, or using more robust reporting and symptom protocols when the doctor’s office is closed. But what exactly does that look like? And how can these nurses provide consistency on every call? Here’s a full breakdown of that process. The Patient First, a patient calls a doctor’s office to discuss
Are Answering Service Operators Asking the Right Questions?
When a patient calls a nurse triage phone line, they’re first greeted by an answering service. This includes an operator whose job it is to ask questions regarding the reason for the patient’s call, which allows patient requests to be organized into urgent and non-urgent categories for nurse triage staff to address. However, there are times when the complaint an operator documents isn’t reflective of the severity of the patient’s problem. Why does this happen, and how can it be avoided? First, Answering Service Operators
