A large, California-based health system
300+ primary care and specialist providers
2014
After-Hours Telephone Triage and Physician Answering Services
For many years this large California-based health system worked with a local call center for after-hours triage and answering services. However, the call center announced that it would be closing, leaving the health system to find a quick alternative for its more than 300 physicians.
The health system turned to AccessNurse. Although the provider practices had a high level of customizations that had evolved over the years, AccessNurse worked closely with the closing call center and the health system to implement a smooth transition of services. The providers were naturally anxious about the change, but AccessNurse delivered seamless transitions for their patients.
The health system continues to express its confidence in the services offered by AccessNurse. After 6 months of working with AccessNurse, the health system added daytime nurse triage for their primary care providers. AccessNurse worked with providers to establish their preferred communication processes, and symptomatic patients routed to AccessNurse triage nurses were advised based on the preferences of each patient’s physician. This enabled practice nurses to focus on patient care and education in the office.
Within one year of the health system’s transition to AccessNurse services, one hospital added online ED appointmment scheduling to its website although allowing patients to make ED appointments without nurse triage presented some risk management issues. AccessNurse picked up support for triage on the hospital’s behalf. After patients scheduled their ED appointments, patients were directed to the AccessNurse Nurse Triage line to validate that the wait time was appropriate.