Telephonic Nurse Triage: An Overview
The telephonic nurse triage industry has been around for nearly 20 years, and has a tried and true track record of reducing work comp costs and getting injured employees to the appropriate level of care. This service started out as an offering to large corporations, but has slowly trickled down to medium and even small companies who can use and benefit from this service.
Telephonic nurse triage is typically performed by a Registered Nurse who has many years of hospital experience. This experience provides the nurse with the necessary knowledge and experience, in conjunction with medical algorithm software, in asking the right type of questions in order to better assess their situation. Time of injury assessment is one of the main benefits of this service, as it provides guidance to an injured employee at to what they should do next. If First Aid sufficient, the RN will give some basic instructions as to the best remedy(s) to utilize. If Homecare is needed, the nurse will give recommendations such as ice, heat, ibuprofen, etc. for the injured employee to do at home for a minor injury.
If a workplace injury requires a visit to an Urgent Care clinic, the nurse will send the necessary documentation to the clinic in advance of the employee’s arrival, thereby streamlining the process when they arrive. The purpose of the telephonic nurse triage program is to reduce, not eliminate, the number of minor injuries that turn into work comp claims. On average, a good program will reduce a company’s overall work comp claims by about 45% or more. This can have a significant financial impact for the company; this greatly reduces medical costs, but also can reduce the overall policy costs for the company’s Workers’ Comp Insurance.
New advancements in this industry have come to the forefront recently, allowing an injured employee to use a phone app to connect directly to the RN call center, and other features that make the experience as streamlined as possible for the injured employee. Demographic information is gathered during the call, and documents such as state required forms, OSHA logs, and others are automatically filed to ensure timely compliance, and help get claims resolved and closed as quickly as possible.
If your company is looking to reduce overall work comp claims, reduce costs on unnecessary clinic visits, and offload the liability of making medical based decisions in the field, you should check into a telephonic nurse triage program. You could save thousands of dollars and provide timely, appropriate medical care for your employees.