12 Tips for Triage
Triage is a clinical function that touches every patient. It’s a function that sits at the intersection of safety, access, staffing, and experience, and should be treated as a core piece of your clinical strategy.
Between workforce shortages, rising acuity, and increasing after-hours demand, small breakdowns in triage can compound quickly. The good news is that meaningful improvement doesn’t always require a full redesign. The right habits, supported by clear data and clinical context, can reduce unnecessary escalations, protect clinician capacity, and improve confidence for patients and families.
Based on what we see across millions of triage interactions, these 12 practical tips can help you proactively strengthen your triage operations.
Tip 1: Close the loop during the day
Wrapping up unresolved concerns before the end of the business day allows after hours teams to focus on clinically urgent needs, not preventable escalations.
Tip 2: Let your call patterns guide you
Your data will always reveal pressure points. When you pay attention to call timing, volume, and reasons, you can staff smarter and intervene earlier.
Tip 3: Make first call resolution the goal
When nurses have the right context and information at their fingertips, more issues can be resolved on the first call, reducing stress for patients, families, and staff.
Tip 4: Make medication reviews routine
Many nighttime symptom calls stem from medication questions or confusion. Clarifying medications upstream can prevent hours of downstream disruption.
Tip 5: Educate families early and often
Helping families understand what is normal versus urgent builds confidence and reduces unnecessary panic calls.
Tip 6: Check in before the weekend
A quick review of symptoms, medication needs, or equipment concerns on Friday can be the difference between a calm weekend and a chaotic one.
Tip 7: Keep documentation clean and actionable
Clear, consistent notes help every clinician quickly understand the situation and keep care moving without delays or unnecessary escalations.
Tip 8: Make protocols easy to access
When guidance is easy to find, triage moves faster, more safely, and with greater consistency.
Tip 9: Use triage data to inform staffing
Understanding true peak call windows allows you to align staffing with real demand instead of relying on guesswork.
Tip 10: Treat every escalation as a breadcrumb
Each escalation points to a potential workflow gap, communication issue, or education opportunity. There is always something to learn.
Tip 11: Lead with empathy on every call
Warm, confident communication builds trust. When callers feel heard, the entire triage experience improves.
Tip 12: Pair your teams with the right technology
Technology should support clinical judgment, not replace it. When nurses are equipped with the right tools, they can make quicker, safer decisions.
Put These Tips Into Practice
Effective triage requires experienced clinical judgment, consistent processes, and the discipline to learn from every interaction. Improving it can feel overwhelming, but progress doesn’t require fixing everything at once. When you start with your data and understand what’s happening and when, you can focus improvement efforts where they will make the greatest difference.
If it feels like you’re trying to boil the ocean, let’s talk.