Filed Under: Nurse Triage Medical Answering Service, Clinical Triage Service Tagged With: answering service, home health, hospice, medical answering service, patient engagement, supporting nurses, telehealth

Today, home health and hospice providers are facing several operational challenges with on-call staff, including staffing shortages, limited budgets, and the need to improve patient outcomes as a part of the shift towards value-based care.

Fortunately, centralized triage has become an essential backbone for home health and hospice providers to rely on. It creates the perfect solution for reducing the burden on caregivers by providing clinical overflow support, and more compassionate and efficient approaches to home-based care.

Understanding the Need for Centralized Triage

There has always been a high demand for after-hours support in home health and hospice care. Unscheduled calls create ambiguity and inefficient staffing strategies that lead to either too many or too few staff ready to meet patient demand. This can impact local branches with an overflow of after-hours calls, staff burnout, and overall inefficiency. Centralized triage improves patient access to care while taking the burden off the branch clinicians.

This approach creates flexible triage coverage that can take care of call overflow and improve patient satisfaction across the board for home health and hospice branches. With a centralized triage team, you can provide a 24/7 call center staffed with trained clinicians who act as a single point of contact for patients who need quick access to medical assistance and information (NISOS).

The Role of Technology Infrastructure in Centralizing Triage

Centralized triage teams can take advantage of advanced platforms and software solutions to streamline patient interactions and create seamless communication among clinicians. With integrated telephony technologies, providers can track phone call volume and purpose, ensuring that patient calls are routed and answered in the most efficient, personalized way possible for patient care.

The right technological infrastructure is an important factor in ensuring efficient communication between healthcare systems and promoting a cohesive approach to triage that spans the healthcare organization. For example, EMR-integrated mobile applications and telehealth platforms help to further centralize triage by allowing patient calls to be routed to nurses available to help rather than forcing those currently caring for a patient to take an incoming call. Pairing this technology with patient task management, active follow-up and secure messaging will prevent common miscommunications and open task loops–redefining care delivery for everyone involved.

How Centralizing Triage Improves Patient Care

Centralizing triage is paving the way for enhanced patient care and improved satisfaction. Since patients appreciate quick and easy access to their providers, a centralized triage team will add flexibility into the home health and hospice space by addressing patient needs rapidly, regardless of how busy a provider is. With first-call resolution as the objective, staffing resources are optimized to reduce response times and direct appropriate care so that patients don’t get passed around.

Centralized triage teams give patients the opportunity to discuss their symptoms and concerns with trained triage nurses, who can advise them, suggest over-the-counter remedies, or order medications and supplies from the comfort of their own homes. This approach ensures the appropriate level of care occurs before needs arise and avoids further after-hours calls and expensive hospital and ER visits. The result is a patient-centric approach, where patients experience not only timely interventions but also a seamless and efficient healthcare journey. Centralizing triage reshapes healthcare with a focus on responsiveness, personalized quality care, and improved patient satisfaction.

Operational Benefits for Home Health and Hospice Providers

There are many benefits to centralizing triage for home health and hospice providers. From minimizing administrative burdens on clinicians, to assessing the level of care needed for patients, it customizes triage needs according to size and specifics of the provider. Whether your organization is handling a small caseload or managing a larger patient population, centralized triage is organized and flexible enough to adjust resources based on demand, contributing to cost-effective and sustainable care delivery.

For providers, the ability to route non-clinical calls to less costly staff members not only opens availability but also allows clinical staff to operate at the top of their license, focusing on tasks that align with their passion for care. This promotes job satisfaction and increases the overall effectiveness of your clinical team.

Analytics also plays an important role here. By tracking patient interaction types, clinicians can gain a better understanding of what kinds of patient calls are coming in and when. This information can then be used to proactively take care of patient needs, such as medications or medical supplies, during regular business hours instead of after hours, when it’s much more inconvenient for patients and more expensive for providers.

Implementing Centralized Triage Services

Partnering with an expert in centralized triage is key to a seamless transition for both patients and providers. This avoids common pitfalls when hastily bolting new technology onto existing systems and focuses on syncing technology within clinical workflow needs. Here are more benefits of partnering with experts:

Industry Insights–access to professionals who align triage with current standards.
Risk Mitigation–experts identify risks and reduce the likelihood of errors.
Data Security and Compliance–safeguard sensitive health information according to HIPAA requirements.
Training and Support–call data pinpoints areas where ongoing education is needed.
Scalability–experts in triage help you manage growth and develop solutions alongside your business.

As home health and hospice organizations consider implementing centralized triage, partnering with seasoned professionals fosters a reflective, thoughtful, and strategic approach to elevating patient care.

Centralize Your Triage with CareXM

Centralized triage improves staff performance by using call recordings and reporting to identify training opportunities. At CareXM is the kind of experienced clinical partner you can count on to deliver the help you need to elevate your patient and caregiver experiences. Our mission is to help our partners effortlessly anticipate and respond to patient needs with triage technology backed by our on-demand triage team. Whether you need after-hours triage, our cost-saving hybrid triage solutions, or in-house triage call center infrastructure, we help you flex and extend your care so you reach patients in the moments they need help the most. From home health and hospice to health systems and more, CareXM will transform your patient approach to lower operating costs.

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Filed Under: Clinical Triage Service Tagged With: home health, Home-Health, hospice, medical answering service, supporting nurses, Triage Nurse

The landscape of modern-day healthcare is evolving rapidly, with remote patient monitoring (RPM) emerging as a game-changer that’s ushering in a new era of cost effective personalized value-based care. RPM services leverage technology to bridge the gap between patient and providers, quickly becoming the next wave of flexible, rapid care delivery.

By using their preferred device, patients can become active participants in automated health monitoring using wearable smart technology. This allows clinicians to track a patient’s vital signs and health data in real-time, easily supporting post-acute care for both patients and providers.

Advantages of RPM Services

Today, there are many factors contributing to the upward trend of RPM services. Its continuous monitoring capabilities outside of clinical settings enhance early detection of health issues and reduce hospital readmissions–fostering better patient outcomes. In the face of challenges associated with delivering care to a rapidly aging population, many clinicians agree RPM services have a user-friendly application that is a safe and effective way to monitor and maintain the delivery of healthcare to some of their most critical patients.

At CareXM, our RPM is clinician built and backed, and proven to break through the barriers between patients and providers. Recently, in just over 12 months, one of our Home Health Agencies serving over 1,400 patients achieved:

Improved Quality Scores–90% of patients would recommend their RPM to others.
Less than 1% of Patients Require Hospitalization or ER Visits–the cost of care is drastically reduced, saving providers and patients time and money unlike ever before.
99% of Patients Adhered to Provider Directions–most patients choose to learn about their conditions, make lasting lifestyle changes, and take accountability for their health journey.
Reduced Health Escalations Overall–Only 1% of medical alerts needed to be escalated to clinical staff.

RPM Services & Personalized Patient Healthcare:

Tailored Care Plans

Patient care journeys help transform patients into active participants who develop a sense of ownership over their treatment. For a variety of populations, RPM services promote tailored care plans that automate data collection and easy-to-use tools as a way for patients to manage their condition. Successful RPM services require a care-driven approach especially for monitoring multiple patient populations with varying health conditions. Plus, it helps to ensure patient compliance, with 70% more likely to adhere to treatment plans when given the self-monitoring tools (npj).

The continuous stream of real-time patient data acquired from RPM services allow health care providers to tailor interventions, medications, and lifestyle recommendations specific to each patient’s needs. As they better understand their health trends and care needs, patients are more likely to follow prescribed treatment protocols. For providers, RPM enables clinicians to view the full scope of a patient’s vitals. For example, clinicians caring for patients with ongoing care needs, such as those with heart conditions or diabetes, can take advantage of continuous monitoring provided by RPM devices and tailored care plans. Care providers are alerted in the event of a high-risk reading, allowing them to intervene properly.

Automated Data Collection

RPM services automate patient monitoring and data collection. This enables clinicians to stay informed about a patient’s health status even when they are not physically present. Through a combination of EHR integrated dashboards, and remote monitoring health devices like blood pressure monitors or blood glucose meters, patient health information (PHI) is automatically collected. RPM technology also seamlessly gathers vital signs, changing symptoms, and behavioral patterns–offering clinicians a more comprehensive and real-time view of patient health status. RPM trends patient vitals over time and alerts clinicians when readings are outside the correct range, allowing clinical teams to determine the right solution. Actionable insights like this help prevent potential problems and enable personalized, responsive, and timely care.

Patient Engagement & Empowerment

Patient engagement has become an essential part of modern healthcare, especially in home health and hospice. RPM technology empowers patients and providers to take health engagement further with services like automated tuck-in calls, on-the-go patient surveys, and medication refill reminders. It provides patients with the tools to assist, self-monitor, and recognize the importance of their health. When a patient understands their condition through a tailored care plan and how they can contribute to the betterment of their own health, they are more likely to experience positive health outcomes. Raising a patient’s health literacy encourages their decision-making and effective communication with their provider. Alongside a user-friendly interface loaded with educational content, RPM helps to create activated patients by:

fostering engagement & empowerment.
encouraging adherence to treatment plans.
enabling informed participation in healthcare decisions (medium).

Cost Reduction & Efficiency

RPM creates healthcare savings by preventing more severe and costly outcomes like unnecessary hospitalizations, readmissions, and ED visits. For instance, a patient without access to RPM may head to the ED in response to a symptom that can be easily diagnosed and addressed with an RPM device. This approach eases the burden on the overall care continuum and creates better communication between patients and providers.

RPM also optimizes staff efficiency by combatting clinical staff shortages. It seeks to improve clinical workflow across care continuums by prioritizing quality care and enabling clinicians to triage each patient based on real-time status. Improved technology quickly alerts staff for patient intervention before symptoms become emergencies. Easy-to-read dashboards automatically escalate urgent needs, with integrated ad-hoc communication tools and robust analytics, making remote care more efficient. Through these advancements, RPM leverages a team-based care model, which allows clinicians flexibility and the focus needed for quality virtual care.

Reimagine Your RPM Services with CareXM Today!

Our game changing RPM platform reduces nurse burden, drives down costs, and improves patient adherence. We empower our patients with proactive, automated communication tools that create real engagement with their own healthcare, improving outcomes and satisfaction while reducing provider costs.

CareXM is the kind of experienced clinical partner you can count on to deliver the help you need to elevate your patient and caregiver experiences. Our mission is to help our partners effortlessly anticipate and respond to patient needs with triage technology backed by our on-demand triage team. Whether you need after-hours triage, our cost-saving hybrid triage solutions, or in-house triage call-center infrastructure, we help you flex and extend your care so you reach patients in the moments they need help the most. From home health and hospice to health systems and more, CareXM will transform your patient approach to lower operating costs.

Request Consult

Filed Under: Clinical Triage Service, After Hours Answering Service, Nurse Triage Medical Answering Service Tagged With: answering service, home health, Home-Health, hospice, nurses, patient engagement, supporting nurses, telehealth, Triage Nurse

Clinician support and care has never been more important than in today’s post pandemic-world. According to Medscape’s 2023 Physician Burnout & Depression Report, more than half of US physicians suffer from burnout, with nearly 1 in 4 also reporting depression.

Although burnout is not a new concept, Covid-19 highlighted how this condition affects more than just clinicians. It disturbs the patient’s health journey and even the functionality of the healthcare system. By carrying out strategies to improve clinician well-being, healthcare leaders not only guarantee better outcomes for patients, but cultivate greater and stronger care-communities that will thrive in any environment. It’s time to show clinical support.

Strategies to Show Clinical Support

Clinicians will always be the foundation for a successful and meaningful patient experience. That’s why leaders in the healthcare community must take time to foster and commit to deeper staff appreciation methods. Advocating for your providers can make great strides towards patient engagement, staff retention and the overall significance of your organization!

With that being said—here are seven strategies that focus on delivering improved care and will help improve clinical support:

Work-Life Balance & Clinical Support.

For clinicians, time management and prioritization are essential to improving work-life balance and creating appropriate boundaries between work and home. Clinicians can’t effectively care for patients if they don’t care for themselves first. Encouraging your staff to practice self-care and explore all paid time off options will help them develop healthy cycles of rest off-the-clock. As an added support, employers should reevaluate workloads, processes, and systems on a regular basis to ensure rotations are manageable and time off is really time off.

Professional Development Opportunities.

Most organizations understand the benefit of professional development opportunities for clinicians, but research shows these options dropped rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nurses who remained in the workforce had more patients to see, multiple different shoes to fill, and new technology to understand. Although this led to rapid skill growth, it quickly caused exhaustion and hindered career development. Now, administrators must learn to put forward development opportunities in an authentic way such as leadership pathways and certification training. Providing easy-to-access resources proves that veteran clinicians are valued and paves the way for inexperienced nurses who are entering the field.

Mental Health Support.

Unfortunately, not all healthcare workers have access to mental health services. Start by normalizing discussions around mental health and offer confidential avenues for seeking help. By simply providing access to resources like counseling services, and on-site clinical support networks, organizations can work towards eliminating stigma around this treatment and encourage clinicians to seek help when they need it. As leaders in care quality, administration should know their care-providers even better than they know their patients.When you know what matters to your team members, you’re able to better understand their priorities as a team member.

Collaborative Decision-Making.

Working in care requires continuous collaboration–from everyone. Individually, nurses and clinicians need to have a deep understanding of their role to properly support fellow staff and deliver high-quality patient care. Seek their input, value their expertise, and institute methods for cooperation and collaboration between all levels of care. Encouraging open communication establishes a clear channel of communication to share ideas, concerns, and feedback directly. Dialogue rather than directives creates spaces for clinicians to feel comfortable expressing their options without fear. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across different care continuums (doctors, nurses, & administrators) leaders can leverage their unique perspectives to deliver better care outcomes.

Supportive Work Environment.

Team Based Care = Better Care Teams. Healthy work environments are a necessity for clinicians, especially in 2024. AACN reports that nurses who work in safe and healthy workplaces report greater job satisfaction, employee engagement and experience less burnout. Plus, patients experience higher quality care and greater outcomes compared to those cared for by nurses who operate in unhealthy work environments. Quality care like this can only be achieved with effective, open, and honest communication that provides opportunities for proactive feedback (NLM). Foster a supportive and respectful workplace culture where teamwork and mutual respect are encouraged. When conflicts do occur, they must be addressed promptly to build safe and inclusive atmospheres for clinicians to focus on patient care. Remember to always show clinical support.

Tools & Technology to Augment & Exhibit Clinical Support for Staff.

When technology is correctly executed, it should help augment the human side of care. Investing in tools and technology that make your clinicians day-to-day easier will alleviate their administrative responsibilities. Automated intelligence is creating opportunities for clinicians to streamline tasks like medication refills and measuring vitals. Some examples include:

Provide an availability status tool like CareXM for your staff. Clinicians can pre-set their work availability status and focus more on the patient at hand.
Use electronic medical records (EMR) integrations between systems to track patient data over time and identify who is due for care, with less time consuming and error prone data entry.
Incorporate patient engagement tools like remote patient monitoring devices.
Collect patient call analytics data and reporting insights to show why patients call. This way your team can build programs to solve problems before they happen and cut down on repetitive tasks.

Recognition and Appreciation.

Nursing is more than just an occupation–it’s an act of selfless dedication. Clinicians often work long hours in high stress environments providing emotional and physical care to patients. Without acknowledgement–tough workloads can lead to stress, burnout and eventually the overall failure of a healthcare system…because where would we be without clinicians in the first place? Learning to recognize and appreciate staff regularly validates their efforts and provides motivation to continue giving their best. Celebrating their contributions doesn’t have to be complicated, it just needs to come from the heart! Whether that’s recognizing their achievements–both big and small–fostering a culture of appreciation and value within the workplace, or even just a simple form of verbal appreciation. A simple sign of appreciation from an administrator can go a long way to demonstrate clinical support (ANN).

At CareXM, We Stand for Change.

Learn how to show clinical support today. CareXM is the kind of experienced, clinical partner you can count on to deliver the help you need to elevate your patient and caregiver experiences. Our mission is to help our partners effortlessly anticipate and respond to patient needs with triage technology backed by our on-demand triage team. Whether you need after-hours triage, our cost-saving hybrid triage solutions, or in-house triage call-center infrastructure, we help you flex and extend your care, so you reach patients in the moments they need help the most. From home health and hospice to health systems and more, CareXM will transform your patient approach to lower operating costs.

Request Consult

Understanding the Need for Centralized Triage

The Role of Technology Infrastructure in Centralizing Triage

How Centralizing Triage Improves Patient Care