Triage Calls; Types, Issues, Goals
Types of calls:
Symptom triage
Result management
Customer service
Care coordination/scheduling
Dump jobs
The three main cardiac issues to worry about during triage:
Advancing Ischemia
Advancing Heart Failure
Acute Rhythm Problem
Weird Stuff; pericarditis, growths or clumps, counting bullet points, etc…
Three main goals with nursing care in general:
Making sure the patient isn’t dying faster than they should be (see above for the big three cardiac concerns)
Making sure the patient isn’t dying more miserably than they should be
Help with what’s needed outside the visit; follow up checks, advancing their care plan (GDMT is a big one here), sorting results, questions, needs, concerns, problems, and then getting those issues to where they can be addressed, be it a visit, review, or massive behind the scenes efforts to sort things out.
Work for that 10 out of 10 on the survey. As able. There was a period of years where healthcare, and as a result individual patient care, was dominated by a focus on patient satisfaction and not what a patient may really need.
We spent years training patients to almost expect frank ass kissing in lieu of frank discussions or shouldering responsibility for their own health, all in the hopes of getting a 9 or 10 on our survey results. We can't care for them more than they care about themselves, and that got lost at some point. We need to re-train people on how to manage their own health care and interact with our system.
Keep an eye out for the King Duck; the calls or results that may point towards something ominous. It may be obvious in the picture, but i’s not as clear when wading through calls, results, or messages (it’s the pink one, and yes, I just made this up to fit the picture).
Care plan for calls:
The main goal is to get the patient from one appointment to the next, identifying any acute concerns that may speed up how fast they are dying, or changes /issues making their daily life more miserable.
Consider heavy up front education, conversation, and review with the patient with the end goal to reduce call backs, improve patient compliance with treatment, and overall reduce the misery we experience while moving towards our ultimate demise.
This is an opportunity to identify needs or gaps in their care path, current and potential future instances, and get them addressed or at least touched on and positioned so that future encounters might be more productive.
