15 Benefits of Outsourcing Triage Services in Home Health & Hospice

Outsourcing unlocks the power of dedicated expertise, allowing businesses to tap into an extension of specialized skills and a larger pool of talent and resources to focus on what truly matters to their organization. In the home health and hospice industry, outsourcing services like triage can be a game-changer. By entrusting this vital function to specialized triage providers, home health and hospice agencies can focus on delivering the best patient care while removing the on-call burden from their nurses. Partners of IntellaTriage have seen significant benefits from outsourcing their triage, and with over fifteen years of experience providing nurse-first triage calls, we are certainly the experts.

Here are the top 15 advantages of outsourcing triage services:

1. 24/7 Availability: Outsourcing provides round-the-clock access to triage services, ensuring patients can receive care anytime, day or night, and in direct contrast to non-clinical answering services, patients can speak directly to a nurse instead of leaving a message and awaiting a call.
2. Expertise: Triage service providers specialize in handling medical calls, ensuring that trained professionals (in our case, licensed nurses) assess patient needs appropriately.
3. Reduced Workload: With this model, home health and hospice agencies can streamline their operations, focusing on core healthcare services while triage experts handle initial inquiries.
4. Scalability: Outsourcing allows agencies to easily adapt to fluctuating call volumes without the hassle of finding, hiring, and training additional staff.
5. Cost Efficiency: Outsourcing can often be more cost-effective than maintaining an in-house triage department, as it eliminates the overhead associated with staffing and training.
6. Enhanced Patient Experience: Patients receive quick, professional, and consistent responses to their calls, improving their overall experience. (Our nurses answer in less than 60 seconds on average.)
7. Patient and Clinician Peace of Mind. With 24/7 triage, patients are likelier to call when issues arise if they feel that they won’t be waking or disturbing their nurse. It is important that patients and their caregivers feel comfortable calling at any time, day or night, because solving an issue early can help prevent a crisis later. This also helps agency nurses feel better, knowing their patients are being cared for.
8. Improved Quality of Care: Licensed nurses trained to be remote triage experts can appropriately assess the severity of a patient’s condition, ensuring timely care and a compassionate ear.
9. Increased Nurse Retention: Outsourced triage can increase nurse retention by improving work-life balance and making them more likely to remain at their jobs longer, also reducing the short staff-high attrition cycle.
10. Reduced Burnout: Home health and hospice staff can focus on delivering care, reducing stress and burnout. Nurses don’t have to worry about answering triage-addressable calls after hours or while at the bedside, allowing nurses to “turn off” outside work hours to refresh.
11. Quick Response Time: Outsourcing leads to shorter patient wait times, improving patient satisfaction. When you are concerned or have a question about your care or the care of a loved one, waiting ten minutes can feel like ten hours. Direct access to a nurse on the line (no frustrating menus or long wait times) makes a world of difference.
12. Access to Technology: Triage service providers often have advanced technology for call handling, ensuring efficient and secure patient data management. Our IntellaHub platform provides a seamless experience and dramatically improved workflows (and less documentation time!).
13. Flexibility: Outsourcing agreements can be tailored to the specific needs of the agency, allowing for a customized service experience.
14. Emergency Preparedness: Outsourced triage is a great addition to your agency’s emergency preparedness plan, ensuring that your patients can still access a nurse if your power goes out during a natural disaster, for example.
15. Data Analytics: Outsourced services often offer data analytics, providing valuable insights for improving patient care and the agency’s efficiency. With over 500,000 calls triaged annually, IntellaTriage’s data and benchmarking offer an expert and unique view into what occurs after-hours and open the door for quality improvements and improved outcomes.

In conclusion, outsourcing triage services in home health and hospice can be a strategic move that benefits both patients and agencies. It offers cost-efficiency, round-the-clock availability, and expert handling of patient concerns. This allows home health and hospice agencies to focus on their core mission of providing high-quality care to patients while leaving the triage in the capable hands of professionals. As the post-acute healthcare industry evolves, outsourcing will prove to be an increasingly valuable tool in optimizing patient care.

IntellaTriage provides outsourced nurse-based triage services for hospice, home health, and palliative care patients. We have over fifteen years of experience providing nurse-first triage calls, and our focus continues to be on providing the highest level of care for clients, no matter the time of day. Our licensed nurses triage every call according to the appropriate protocols for your agency, and they answer in less than sixty seconds on average.

Want to hear more? Contact us today for a complimentary after-hours consultation.