Outcomes of Successful Nurse Triage and Patient Engagement Strategies

Nurse Triage and patient engagement strategies affect every patient interaction across the care continuum. Patients that are transferring from one care environment to another, in home care or other care setting that requires constant monitoring, nurse triage can help to enable continuous care 24/7/365 days year. For these patients, an effective on call triage solution is often times the only viable solution for the best patient outcomes and care, but what can an organization focused on the best patient engagement expect to achieve from Nurse Triage services?

Here are some of the outcomes that you can realize:

Better engagement: The best patient engagement solution delivers the best personalized care but also can provide valuable information back to the caregivers about what best motivates patients to engage in their care, what types of engagement help patients better understand their care plans and instructions, and what builds trust between the patient and the caregiver. Without live nurse triage care, patients will not engage, so it is imperative for patients to feel comfortable during their interactions with nurses and that their voice is being heard through compassionate conversations with every caregiver during their healthcare journey. A few the basic benefits of live nurse triage available 24/7 can be: Offering on-demand care, any time from any device, Streamlining prescription renewals or ordering, Access to 24/7 appointment scheduling and care coordination.

Managing care transitions and reducing readmissions:  Engaging patients through every phase of their recovery and transition is critical to reducing readmissions, and unnecessary 911 calls or urgent care visits. A nurse driven patient engagement solution can support most patient transitions, including hospital-to-home transitions after a procedure or chronic condition episode, or home care and hospice transitions.

The most effective means of reducing readmissions are quality follow-up phone calls or other direct nurse contact with the patient. Transitioning from the hospital and being alone can make the patient experience even more complicated.

In addition, to better discharge instructions or home care instructions, patient engagement solutions should include periodic follow-up phone calls or direct interaction to make sure patients are taking their medications and attending follow up appointments. A post-discharge call from a nurse every few days or weeks can help to verify that patients are attending follow-up appointments and are getting and taking their prescribed medications. Follow-up Nurse calls can help identify any changes in a patient’s health and can direct them immediately to the best options to help prevent unnecessary 911 calls or ER visits. Nurse Triage calls are the best way to provide preventative care without requiring a physical visit reducing the burden on physicians and medical staff during the day. Although implementing technology can automate some of the process of patient outreach it doesn’t replace the benefit of having a one-on-one conversation with the patient to gauge how the patient is feeling.

Increased HCAHPS scores: A good nurse triage based patient engagement solution will help manage expectations during every patient encounter. Better engagement with the patient, driven by licensed nurses, coupled with less stressful transitions and access to care on demand will help to increase your HCAHPS scores.

Better nurse and physician satisfaction: Some of the most common patient questions that are received post discharge or during home care can be handled by a Nurse Triage solution or as part of the outbound engagement campaign, thus reducing the need for your permanent full time staff (physicians and nurses) to handle calls and taking them away from live care or having to monitor phone calls over nights and on weekends, or having to execute post discharge campaigns. Nurse Triage services are the number one way to ensure your clinicians are not over worked, over burden and likely to burnout.

When done right, nurse driven solutions as part of your patient engagement program can provide the best way to manage care by building trust and delivering live care 24/7, that will motivate patients to take a more proactive role in their care.

If you have ever wanted to explore the options of Live Nurse Triage Services to enhance your patient engagement program, contact us today to start a conversation.