Phone call triage is a staple of the modern medical answering service. It is something that our medical operators are trained in. We wouldn’t have it any other way. But did you know that the concept of medical triage has its roots in the U.S. Civil War?
Also known as the War Between the States, the Civil War had a profound impact on this country. Not only did it impact us politically and culturally, but the war also had a tremendous impact on medical care. Triage, which is fairly routine today, was born on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War.
It All Started With Ambulances
A half-century before the Civil War, France was engaged in its own revolution. A surgeon by the name of Dominique-Jean Larrey observed that soldiers were needlessly dying from wounds that were treatable simply because they were not being given immediate care. He instituted a system of horse-drawn ambulances that carried the wounded off the battlefield and to organized field hospitals.
Fast forward to the Civil War and Union Surgeon Major Jonathan Letterman who, in 1862, borrowed from the French example and instituted an ambulance plan for the Union army. But for Letterman, that wasn’t enough. He had to do more than simply get the wounded to field hospitals more quickly.
Letterman developed a system of sorting wounded soldiers by the nature and severity of their wounds. The most severely injured would be treated right away, while less severe injuries would be delayed as needed. Though Letterman didn’t use the word triage to describe his system – the term wouldn’t be officially used until decades later – triage was exactly what Letterman’s medical teams were practicing.
The Same Needs Remain
We are some 160 years separated from the Civil War. We may not be at war today, but the same needs remain. Take a look at any major city’s emergency departments. They are often overcrowded and understaffed. Triage plays an essential role in making sure every patient gets timely care based on need.
Similarly, medical offices receive a daily stream of phone calls. Calls also come in after hours. Some calls represent emergency needs, while others do not. So it is up to operators to sort things out. Phone call triage is simply non-negotiable whether a practice handles calls in-house or contracts with an answering service like Apello.
From our perspective, triage should be handled by fully trained and experienced operators with a keen understanding of medical needs and procedures. A medical answering service incapable of performing triage offers little value other than the ability to take messages and schedule appointments. That is not how we do business.
Healthier and Happier Patients
Proper triage leads to healthier and happier patients. Emergency calls can be properly forwarded so that the patients receive important instructions in a timely manner. This is vital for their health. Patients facing emergency needs cannot wait hours for help. They need it now.
Meanwhile, patients with needs that are not so urgent are still served in a timely manner. Through proper triage, their calls can be addressed with a future callback, a message forwarded to a clinician, or anything else they might need. The important thing is that they aren’t left on hold or ignored by being forwarded to voicemail.
Triage is a normal part of what we do here at Apello. As an accomplished medical answering service, we are proud to say that our phone operators are trained specifically in how to handle medical calls. Triage is a strong suit for our dedicated professionals serving the medical industry.
