Telephone Triage

  • Telephone Triage

    Posted by Carrie Orlebeke on October 2, 2019 at 3:58 pm

    We are looking at ​different models of who triages parent phone calls during clinic hours. Currently our non-urgent calls go to our nurse clinicians for the specific team. All urgent calls (Fever) go to our lead/ outpatient charge nurse. We are finding out that our nurse clinicians are becoming overwhelmed with phone calls during clinic and can slow clinic flow down. We were wondering what other outpatient clinics do to manage their parent phone calls.

    Do you have one dedicated person that takes all parent calls for the day?

    If so, is it the same person every day?

    Is it a RN or MA?

    Do they work normal clinic hours?

    Do they follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines or other telephone guidelines?

    Is there one MD that is assigned to help triage calls with the telephone triage RN or MA? Or does the person go to the primary oncologist of the patient.

    Thank you for your time and feedback. You can also email me at corlebeke@chw.org.

    ——————————
    Carrie Orlebeke, BSN,RN,BMTCN
    Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
    MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
    Outpatient RN Supervisor Day Hospital and Clinic
    Milwaukee, WI
    ——————————

    Sarah Walding replied 4 years, 3 months ago 6 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Marcia Bettenhausen

    Member
    December 4, 2019 at 11:24 am

    We struggle as well.  We have a scheduler (scheduling concerns)  and one nurse (RN triage) assigned to the phones and ideally go to the primary oncologist……….​ in all reality it is the RN figuring out urgency and getting whichever provider can respond in the most appropriate time frame.

    ——————————
    Marcia Bettenhausen, BSN,CPHON,RN
    Fargo, ND
    ——————————
    ——————————————-
    Original Message:
    Sent: 10-02-2019 03:58 PM
    From: Carrie Orlebeke
    Subject: Telephone Triage

    We are looking at ​different models of who triages parent phone calls during clinic hours. Currently our non-urgent calls go to our nurse clinicians for the specific team. All urgent calls (Fever) go to our lead/ outpatient charge nurse. We are finding out that our nurse clinicians are becoming overwhelmed with phone calls during clinic and can slow clinic flow down. We were wondering what other outpatient clinics do to manage their parent phone calls.

    Do you have one dedicated person that takes all parent calls for the day?

    If so, is it the same person every day?

    Is it a RN or MA?

    Do they work normal clinic hours?

    Do they follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines or other telephone guidelines?

    Is there one MD that is assigned to help triage calls with the telephone triage RN or MA? Or does the person go to the primary oncologist of the patient.

    Thank you for your time and feedback. You can also email me at corlebeke@chw.org.

    ——————————
    Carrie Orlebeke, BSN,RN,BMTCN
    Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
    MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
    Outpatient RN Supervisor Day Hospital and Clinic
    Milwaukee, WI
    ——————————

    • Kristine Rogers

      Member
      December 4, 2019 at 11:32 am

      ​Hi All:
      In our clinic, I assign one RN (with certification) to the phones each day.  The nurses rotate through 3 roles (triage, primary and back-up).  The phone nurse works from 8:00-5:00 and takes all the clinical calls that come in.  If it is a matter necessitating a provider’s input, we have a clinic Provider every day and that person is consulted between patient visits.  We loosely follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines though are a small enough clinic that we know every patient and family which really helps the process run smoothly.  We have no MA’s in the practice at all.  We have one C.N.A. who does vitals, rooms patients and cleans rooms.  We also have one Child Life Specialist who assists nurses and providers with assessments and procedures.  We also have a robust social work staff so that every family sees a social worker with the provider at every visit to clinic.  This model is working very well for us in terms of proactively working with patients and families from a medical and psychosocial standpoint.  We have seen a drop in crisis management and our satisfaction scores have gone up.  Happy to discuss any of the details further.
      Kristine Rogers, MSN, RN
      Maine Children’s Cancer Program
      Maine Medical Center
      Clinical Manager
      Portland, Maine

      ——————————
      Kristine Rogers, MSN RN Clinical Manager, Maine Children’s Cancer Program
      kerogers@mmc.org
      ——————————
      ——————————————-
      Original Message:
      Sent: 12-04-2019 11:23 AM
      From: Marcia Bettenhausen
      Subject: Telephone Triage

      We struggle as well.  We have a scheduler (scheduling concerns)  and one nurse (RN triage) assigned to the phones and ideally go to the primary oncologist……….​ in all reality it is the RN figuring out urgency and getting whichever provider can respond in the most appropriate time frame.

      ——————————
      Marcia Bettenhausen, BSN,CPHON,RN
      Fargo, ND
      ——————————

      Original Message:
      Sent: 10-02-2019 03:58 PM
      From: Carrie Orlebeke
      Subject: Telephone Triage

      We are looking at ​different models of who triages parent phone calls during clinic hours. Currently our non-urgent calls go to our nurse clinicians for the specific team. All urgent calls (Fever) go to our lead/ outpatient charge nurse. We are finding out that our nurse clinicians are becoming overwhelmed with phone calls during clinic and can slow clinic flow down. We were wondering what other outpatient clinics do to manage their parent phone calls.

      Do you have one dedicated person that takes all parent calls for the day?

      If so, is it the same person every day?

      Is it a RN or MA?

      Do they work normal clinic hours?

      Do they follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines or other telephone guidelines?

      Is there one MD that is assigned to help triage calls with the telephone triage RN or MA? Or does the person go to the primary oncologist of the patient.

      Thank you for your time and feedback. You can also email me at corlebeke@chw.org.

      ——————————
      Carrie Orlebeke, BSN,RN,BMTCN
      Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
      MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
      Outpatient RN Supervisor Day Hospital and Clinic
      Milwaukee, WI
      ——————————

    • Christopher Williams

      Member
      December 4, 2019 at 5:46 pm

      Hi,
      We have a dedicated nurse-led oncology fast track clinic embedded in our outpatient department that takes all the calls through one number and admits patients directly to the clinic versus emergency department. It is staffed 0800-1830 Monday to Saturday and diverts to the in-charge of the inpatient ward after hours. We have adapted the UK telephone triage tool https://www.cclg.org.uk/triagetool as it is a lot more succinct in advice for families and have embedded it into EPIC. We hope to sumbuit an abstract to next year’s coference on our experience.

      ——————————
      Christopher WilliamsClinical Nurse Consultant/ Educator
      Royal Childrens Hospital Melbourne Australia
      ——————————
      ——————————————-
      Original Message:
      Sent: 12-04-2019 11:23 AM
      From: Marcia Bettenhausen
      Subject: Telephone Triage

      We struggle as well.  We have a scheduler (scheduling concerns)  and one nurse (RN triage) assigned to the phones and ideally go to the primary oncologist……….​ in all reality it is the RN figuring out urgency and getting whichever provider can respond in the most appropriate time frame.

      ——————————
      Marcia Bettenhausen, BSN,CPHON,RN
      Fargo, ND
      ——————————

      Original Message:
      Sent: 10-02-2019 03:58 PM
      From: Carrie Orlebeke
      Subject: Telephone Triage

      We are looking at ​different models of who triages parent phone calls during clinic hours. Currently our non-urgent calls go to our nurse clinicians for the specific team. All urgent calls (Fever) go to our lead/ outpatient charge nurse. We are finding out that our nurse clinicians are becoming overwhelmed with phone calls during clinic and can slow clinic flow down. We were wondering what other outpatient clinics do to manage their parent phone calls.

      Do you have one dedicated person that takes all parent calls for the day?

      If so, is it the same person every day?

      Is it a RN or MA?

      Do they work normal clinic hours?

      Do they follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines or other telephone guidelines?

      Is there one MD that is assigned to help triage calls with the telephone triage RN or MA? Or does the person go to the primary oncologist of the patient.

      Thank you for your time and feedback. You can also email me at corlebeke@chw.org.

      ——————————
      Carrie Orlebeke, BSN,RN,BMTCN
      Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
      MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
      Outpatient RN Supervisor Day Hospital and Clinic
      Milwaukee, WI
      ——————————

    • Marlene Reidl

      Member
      December 13, 2019 at 10:10 am

      ​Hi

        We have a triage nurse that takes calls all day and the RN’s take turns rotating through triage.  We have an NP that is scheduled during clinic hours to triage sick calls that come in and handle other infusion related issues.  We use the APHON guidelines and adopted the UK telephone triage tool kit.

      ——————————
      Marlene Reidl, RN, BSN CPHON
      Clinical Manager
      Tomorrow Fund Clinic
      Hasbro Children’s Hospital
      Providence, RI USA
      ——————————
      ——————————————-
      Original Message:
      Sent: 12-04-2019 11:23 AM
      From: Marcia Bettenhausen
      Subject: Telephone Triage

      We struggle as well.  We have a scheduler (scheduling concerns)  and one nurse (RN triage) assigned to the phones and ideally go to the primary oncologist……….​ in all reality it is the RN figuring out urgency and getting whichever provider can respond in the most appropriate time frame.

      ——————————
      Marcia Bettenhausen, BSN,CPHON,RN
      Fargo, ND
      ——————————

      Original Message:
      Sent: 10-02-2019 03:58 PM
      From: Carrie Orlebeke
      Subject: Telephone Triage

      We are looking at ​different models of who triages parent phone calls during clinic hours. Currently our non-urgent calls go to our nurse clinicians for the specific team. All urgent calls (Fever) go to our lead/ outpatient charge nurse. We are finding out that our nurse clinicians are becoming overwhelmed with phone calls during clinic and can slow clinic flow down. We were wondering what other outpatient clinics do to manage their parent phone calls.

      Do you have one dedicated person that takes all parent calls for the day?

      If so, is it the same person every day?

      Is it a RN or MA?

      Do they work normal clinic hours?

      Do they follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines or other telephone guidelines?

      Is there one MD that is assigned to help triage calls with the telephone triage RN or MA? Or does the person go to the primary oncologist of the patient.

      Thank you for your time and feedback. You can also email me at corlebeke@chw.org.

      ——————————
      Carrie Orlebeke, BSN,RN,BMTCN
      Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
      MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
      Outpatient RN Supervisor Day Hospital and Clinic
      Milwaukee, WI
      ——————————

  • Sarah Walding

    Member
    December 13, 2019 at 10:23 am

    Do you have one dedicated person that takes all parent calls for the day? Yes- we have a dedicated triage nurse every day

    If so, is it the same person every day? Yes

    Is it a RN or MA? RN

    Do they work normal clinic hours? Yes

    Do they follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines or other telephone guidelines? They determine the questions to ask themselves based on patient complaints/symptoms 

    Is there one MD that is assigned to help triage calls with the telephone triage RN or MA? Or does the person go to the primary oncologist of the patient. They triage RN typically asks the practitioner who is working in clinic that day. 

    ——————————
    Sarah Walding, BSN, RN, CPN
    Clinical Practice Specialist
    Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
    Advocate Children’s Hospital Park Ridge
    ——————————
    ——————————————-
    Original Message:
    Sent: 10-02-2019 03:58 PM
    From: Carrie Orlebeke
    Subject: Telephone Triage

    We are looking at ​different models of who triages parent phone calls during clinic hours. Currently our non-urgent calls go to our nurse clinicians for the specific team. All urgent calls (Fever) go to our lead/ outpatient charge nurse. We are finding out that our nurse clinicians are becoming overwhelmed with phone calls during clinic and can slow clinic flow down. We were wondering what other outpatient clinics do to manage their parent phone calls.

    Do you have one dedicated person that takes all parent calls for the day?

    If so, is it the same person every day?

    Is it a RN or MA?

    Do they work normal clinic hours?

    Do they follow the APHON telephone triage guidelines or other telephone guidelines?

    Is there one MD that is assigned to help triage calls with the telephone triage RN or MA? Or does the person go to the primary oncologist of the patient.

    Thank you for your time and feedback. You can also email me at corlebeke@chw.org.

    ——————————
    Carrie Orlebeke, BSN,RN,BMTCN
    Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
    MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
    Outpatient RN Supervisor Day Hospital and Clinic
    Milwaukee, WI
    ——————————

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