As a pediatrician, you know the value of being able to lay eyes on a patient. Whether a child is suffering from a skin rash, conjunctivitis, or a bad sprain, it’s helpful to see the area in question. Even less “visual” conditions have physical symptoms that you can notice throughout an encounter — seeing discomfort during a coughing fit or picking up on wincing while bending a limb.
Of course, it’s not possible for you to see every youngster in person, every time their parents have a concern. This is especially true during late nights, weekends, and holidays. So how do you reassure parents while still providing high-quality pediatric care? The answer is after-hours nurse triage!
By offering virtual nurse triage, your young patients and their caregivers can connect with a qualified health professional via phone or video. With a secure platform like Anytime After Hours, sharing photos is also an option. In this blog, we’ll discuss six ways video and photos make a difference during after-hours nurse triage interactions.
Benefits of Video and Photos During Virtual Nurse Triage
When children are sick, their parents want to know three things as quickly as possible: What the illness is, how to make it go away, and whether the youngster needs immediate attention. In most cases, urgent care and ER visits are not necessary, and caregivers simply desire reassurance that their at-home care is sufficient — at least until a visit with the pediatrician is feasible. This is where after-hours nurse triage shines, particularly because of its video and photo capabilities. Let’s look at the benefits of these visual elements.
Real-Time Assessment
For some childhood ailments, evaluating symptoms as they are happening is valuable. For example, middle-of-the-night coughing often sounds worse than daytime spells. Whether the parent records their little one’s coughing or the after-hours triage nurse sees it during a virtual encounter, there’s no question that video evidence is extremely beneficial. Plus, a real-time assessment gives parents quick reassurance, lessening their worry and decreasing the chances of an unnecessary trip to the ER.
Better Patient Experience
When patients stay in the medical home, their overall healthcare experience will be better than if they seek care elsewhere. Your patients are used to receiving personalized care from your pediatric clinic, and they appreciate that ongoing connection. In addition, implementing after-hours nurse triage into your pediatric practice means less waiting. In most cases, parents can speak with a nurse right away. During high-volume times, nurses will return calls quickly.
Nurse Advice
With Anytime After Hours, your patients interact with registered nurses who have at least five years of pediatric or ER triage experience. They are highly qualified and receive on-going call review and training. While encounters start off like phone calls, nurses are able to easily convert to telehealth when they see a need to utilize video. They might also ask for photos, particularly when a progression is helpful, like in the case of rashes or bug bites. All of these factors lower the number of your patients who need to be referred to the ED.
Less Late-Night Travel and Coordination
One of the trickiest scenarios for parents is a child who begins exhibiting sick symptoms late at night or in the middle of the night. For single parents, families with a partner who works night shifts, and families with multiple children, nighttime traveling is stressful. With virtual nurse triage, your patients and their families are able to receive care wherever they are, including the comfort of their own homes. Even when the world is dark and most people are asleep, the video and photo capabilities of Anytime After Hours translates into patients feeling safe and parents getting reassurance.
Access for Rural and Underserved Communities
For many years, research has shown that people in rural communities as well as those in low-income areas struggle to have access to high-quality healthcare. Telemedicine and virtual nurse triage bridge that gap for many families, including those in minority groups and of low socioeconomic status. Even if they live far away from your pediatric office or do not have their own transportation, they can utilize Anytime After Hours to get advice from our trained nurses.
Retention
According to the data we’ve compiled at Anytime Pediatrics, generally less than 7% of callers receive the directive, “Go to the ER now,” compared to the national call center average of 14 percent. This means that the vast majority of your patients remain in their medical home. Keeping your young patients in the medical home is crucial to your profitability as a practice, but it’s also important to your patients’ well-being. Our platform makes it easy because call summaries, triage notes, and dispositions can be uploaded into your EMR.
Take the Next Step with Anytime After Hours
Are you ready to see how video and photos can enhance the virtual nurse triage experience for your practice and your patients? Consider implementing Anytime After Hours. Contact us today to request a consultation!
