management
telephony
Telephone triage is an opportunity to empower and educate patients in managing their own healthcare. With over one quarter of all interactions between a patient and a provider now taking place over the telephone, improving how your practice delivers consultations can save lives and help to save money. JULIE PENFOLD looks at why telephone triage training is so vital for practice staff to help them deliver better patient care
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ith over one quarter of all interactions between a patient and healthcare provider now taking place over the telephone, learning the skills of effective consultations is vital for better patient care. “Telephone healthcare is hugely underestimated, undervalued, underperformed and under monitored and carries enormous risks if carried out incorrectly,” says practice nurse Sally-Anne Pygall. “When triage is performed well, it can save lives, and save money by preventing unnecessary access to face-to-face care. Of those patient consultations now taking place over the telephone, only six per cent of staff are trained appropriately.” With over 25 years’ nursing experience, the last 14 years of which working as a senior nurse manager in the area of telephone triage and out-of-hours care provision, Pygall felt so strongly that telephone care needed to be improved, she decided to launch her own telephone consultation business to help other healthcare professionals to improve their attitudes and responses to triage. Despite all those interactions between patients and their healthcare provider taking place over the telephone, there is
little mandatory content on triage in general nursing training. GPs do not have mandatory training unless they work out of hours and are trained by a GP in telephone consultation work, who in turn, has not received official training. This lack of mandatory training means triage is often underperformed. When listening to and auditing calls, as part of her quality assurance work, Pygall regularly flags up a lack of skills in handling triage calls. As a result, patients are given appointments unnecessarily or are not referred to emergency services when this would be the best response action. “One of my passions for telephone triage is that it is a huge opportunity to empower and educate patients in managing their own healthcare. There is so much that could be achieved through effective telephone interaction. Research suggests that one in two callers can actually be managed over the telephone,” she says. “Like many GP practices, we needed to change our approach to patient access, as we never seemed to have enough appointments available,” confirms Jacky Slator, business manager at Grove House Practice. “As a result, our patients, receptionists and clinicians were all
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