Telephonic Triage for the Workplace
Regardless of how robust your company’s safety program is, workplace injuries still do occur. Although companies strive for “Zero Injury Days”, it is human nature that things happen to cause injuries in the workplace. Despite your Safety Director’s First Aid certification and rudimentary medical training, many employees do not feel comfortable for this person to determine what is best for them, and may insist on going to Urgent Care. Additionally the Safety Manager may not want the liability of making a decision for someone’s health, and so they send everyone to a nearby clinic anyway. So what should your company do?
A telephonic nurse triage service is a 24/7 time of injury solution for workplace injuries, with Registered Nurses at the ready to guide an injured employee to the appropriate level of care. Not only does this service provide care advice for the employee, and save the employer unnecessary medical costs, but the liability of this medical-based decision now falls on the shoulders of the triage service and not your company.
Safety measures may be practiced but accidents happen anytime and anywhere. In cases like this, telephone triage services come prove to be useful. A few seconds after an injury, a telephonic nurse triage can come into play.
The purpose of a triage service is twofold:
1. Guide injured workers to the appropriate level of care
2. Reduce claim volume, reduce costs, and reduce liability for the employer
Every dollar not spent on unnecessary clinic visits and increasing work comp costs, is money that goes right back to the company’s bottom line. Profitability is a key for any business, and although the care and safety of worker’s should always be at the forefront, any chance a company gets to save money and reduce overall costs should be taken. If your company is not currently using a service such as this, you need to check into a program soon. Every day that passes, and every injury that occurs is a risk for your company.