Definition Of Telephone Triage

Licensed vocational nurse on call pilot program completed.

Definition of telephone triage. Triage by definition is a dynamic process as the patient s status can change rapidly. Telephone triage is the practice of performing a verbal interview and making a telephonic assessment with regard to the health status of the caller. Triage definition is the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors. It is used e g in emergency departments and the offices of primary care providers to facilitate the outpatient management of common simple health related problems.

The health safety and wellbeing of the patient is at the forefront of every telephone encounter. The specialty is also designed to help those who do not have primary care physicians. This should be done in a timely fashion while meeting standard guidelines in order to prevent symptoms from worsening. The purpose of the telephone triage process is to assess the patient s current signs and symptoms concurrently evaluating their past medical history and current medications.

This credentialed medical specialty was designed to help patients in immediate need who are unable to get to a doctor s office or hospital. Telephone in the nursing interventions classification a nursing intervention defined as determining the nature and urgency of a problem or problems and providing directions for the level of care required over the telephone. Telephone triage nursing goes by a few different names including telehealth nursing and telepathology. Telephone triage nursing is an incredibly valuable service for patients who lack transportation finances or medical knowledge.

Clinicians use problem solving strategies such as pattern recognition clinical assessment to formulate a working diagnosis. With the evolvement of various triage systems it is easy to forget that triage is still the central focus and telephone triage is essentially like operating an ed triage area over the phone. Telephone triage involves the safe appropriate and timely disposition of patient symptoms via phone by trained experienced clinicians licensed medical professionals. In telephone triage decision makers over the phone must effectively assess the patient s symptoms and provide directives based on the urgency.

How to use triage in a sentence.