TELEPHONE TRIAGE

Policies and Procedures Checklist

For telephone health care to be delivered in a safe and consistent manner, the program must develop and maintain a current manual of policies and procedures to which the staff can refer. These must be evidence based, specific to your practice area, and reviewed by the medical director, nursing director, staff utilizing them, and depending on your organization, legal counsel may want to review them as well.

Call back policies
Caller hangs up on nurse Caller is suicidal Minor or surrogate callers Threatening calls Suspected child abuse HIPPA considerations Caller refuses help	No answer Busy signal Caller ID block Wrong number Unidentified answering machine
©www.RnCeus.com

High Acuity Calls

Drug overdose, penetrating wounds, CVA, chest pain, etc,

Frequently Encountered Situations

Taking a temperature (teaching)
Assessing respiratory patterns over the phone
Measuring medication (teaching)
Transportation of sick person
After hour sites for patients to be seen
Normal human resource policies and procedures for running a business
Unable to reach the MD on call
Handling of patient complaints
Organizational chart for problem-solving of issues
"3 times You're Out" for callers who call 3 times, about the same issue, in a 24 hour period
Overriding of protocols
Caller with a language or hearing barrier
Symptoms not covered by a protocol
Nursing follow up calls