Open Forum

Has anyone used Telephone Triage Protocols for Nurses by Julie Briggs as resource for staff? Have reviewed and feel it would be great resource for our new triage staff.

Just curious if others have used.

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In the Veteran Health Administration, we have free access to this resource via our electronic health library. Of note, this was also the primary source I used when I was active-duty Air Force some years ago (although via book only). From my perspective, it is a sound source and is easy to follow. The significant drawback is that it is not integrated with our electronic health record platform. We have created a local documentation template that is in alignment with the flow of the protocols, but it still has its limitations.

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Courtney A. Monterusso BSN, RN, AMB-BC, FNS

Performance Improvement Facilitator –Primary Care Nursing 

ONS Detail Electronic Enterprise Standardization Consultant

VA St. Louis Health Care System | 915 N. Grand Ave, St. Louis, MO 63106 

314.652.4100 ext. 54396 or 289-7676  11F/JC  courtney.monterusso@va.gov

                                           "There is no limit to the amount of

                                            good you can do if you don't care

                                            who gets the credit."

                                                                 ~Ronald Reagan~

We also use ClearTriage, but I do have 1 copy of the briggs book and 1 copy of the Schmitt Thompson pedi protocols in book format at each location in the event that our wifi ever goes down. Briggs is great-but not for peds. They are really adult triage only.

I am considering getting rid of them with the next addition given that we have literally never had an issue with wifi access, but have not decided!

Hope that helps,

Mary

Mary Blankson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, FAAN

Chief Nursing Officer

Community Health Center, Inc.

675 Main Street,

Middletown, CT, 06457

Cell: (860)227-5432

mary@chc1.com

Hi Martha,

We used this for many years prior to transitioning to Epic Nurse Triage.  Our nurses loved it and it was difficult to take their books away from them when we converted to Epic! We still have a few copies around in case of down time.

Kim

Kim Danis RN, BSN, MBA, CNML

Nursing Practice Lead, Manchester Division

100 Hitchcock Way

Manchester, NH 03104

(603) 629-1825 Kim.M.Danis@Hitchcock.org

Are these protocols specific to RN's? Wondering about resources for telephone calls for LPN's and CMA's.

Melanie E. Neville, BSN, RN

Nurse Manager, Medical & Wellness Center

M: 614.519.7618  I  O: 614.840.3500

WorthingtonEnterprises.com  I  NYSE: WOR  I  LinkedIn

Please add my new email address to your contacts: melanie.neville@wthg.com

There are no resources specific to LPNs or unlicensed staff such as MAs...mainly because they, by scope and therefore regulation cannot triage a patient. Triage is a legally scoped action that can only be completed by RNs or providers.

So, most organizations will create some sort of a call routing grid that does allow for some "standing order" actions to determine what can be an appt without triage as long as the pt is seen within 24 hours or 90 minutes as an example. There is always legal risk with some of these guides---but it is really up to the organization to determine how much risk they want to incur with how they manage incoming calls for patients with clinical complaints.

ClearTriage does provide a system as well that can be individualized to your practice called Symptom Screener, I believe-which allows you to create a point and click look-up for these types of standards for your practice to make is easier for front end staff to route and schedule calls...otherwise, you are on your own to create what works for your system. We started with something simple and then have built it from there as I review clinical cases and do call reviews. The more complex the tool is, though, the harder it is for the front end to apply it. The less complex it is, the more legal risk you likely incur because you will miss things...

Not sure if that helps-but I do think it is helpful to understand the background of the definition of the legally scoped action of "triage."

Best regards,

Mary

Mary Blankson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, FAAN

Chief Nursing Officer

Community Health Center, Inc.

675 Main Street,

Middletown, CT, 06457

Cell: (860)227-5432

mary@chc1.com