Sometimes a medically trained staff is not enough.  If you are a doctor and are constantly communicating with patients who depend on you for life and death matters, you cannot take chances with amateur services.  The communication process between doctor and patient is imperative.  This is why in some cases a nurse telephone triage is your only real option.

What is a nurse triage service?  This is an agency that provides registered nurse assistance to patients.  These workers are not just call center agents—they are nurses who are trained to respond to medical emergencies.  They are often asked to provide triage health advice to both patients and caregivers.  Private citizens, recovering patients or nursing facilities might find a nurse’s words very comforting and informative.

There is a big difference between a nurse telephone triage and a medical call answering service.  The latter does train employees to follow HIPAA guidelines and to respond in a positive way to patient’s concerns.  Unfortunately, unless such a worker is directly conveying a doctor’s words, he or she cannot provide medical advice.  Unfortunately, when patients call their doctor on the phone, they usually want just that.  They want to be told what to do—not simply to “wait for the doctor.”

In cases such as this, it might better serve the doctor or the clinic to have a trained nursing staff on-hand ready to take calls.  Hiring a full nursing staff can be very expensive.  For most privately employed physicians or small clinics, this is not an option.  

With nurse telephone triage services you only pay for the services you use.  You pay for the time the virtual nurses (who are registered and legally able to give medical advice) spend with your patients.  This is a great way to show your clients you care without breaking the bank, or breaking your back!